


The Game of the Blackened

by birdn4t0r



Series: A Second Chance [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amnesia, Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Behavior, Canon-Typical Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-typical topics, Canonical Character Death, Don't copy to another site, Global Warming, Memory Alteration, Multi, NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS, New Executions, New Motives, Past Character Death, Past Violence, Post-Canon, Temporary Character Death, new murders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2019-10-11 10:43:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 24,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17445398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/birdn4t0r/pseuds/birdn4t0r
Summary: Kaede Akamatsu thought that her execution would be the end. So why did she wake up in the same locker she'd woken up in just three days ago? Who are these people? And why does her head hurt when she tries to remember why she killed Rantaro?





	1. Prologue I | A New Beginning | Awakening

The last thing I remembered was the feeling of my body going limp as I succumbed to oxygen deprivation and my vision and hearing faded to nothing. A dull numbness cascaded my body from my head. The last of my life had finally been choked out of me by that laughable, discordant mockery of _Der Flohwaltzer_. _Ah...it doesn't hurt anymore..._ The thought of all of my friends, their identities already having been taken from me by the absolute hand of death with only their rapidly-fading concept remaining, surviving and escaping together eased my regrets as the cool, inviting touch of death grabbed my hand and pulled me down into the nothingness as the piano creaked shut with a loud bang until "down" eventually ceased to exist for me, too. Or perhaps it was I who had ceased to exist; my memories, my personality, my concept of self was rapidly fading away with my friends. I guess I'll never know. I never knew what came after death because it's not like anyone has ever been able to return from it before. I'll never be able to go back. And, just before I had faded away completely, one final regret was to speak up before I could finally surrender myself, all of my grief, fears, and regrets, to Death's Land of Nothingness.

_Ah...I never got to play Clair de Lune for Sh   u           i_

I spent an unknowable time suspended in that nothingness until finally, a door was flung open to reveal a blinding light, permeating the unknowable vast nothingness in a vain attempt to reveal what was behind it. And a sharp jolt of pain traveled up my legs as my knees made hard contact with the hard, tile floor. It was as though I had never experienced that nothingness; the ability to feel pain returned in full resolution as I shifted into a seated position and examined my knee. It looked like it was probably just going to be a bruise, but I guess even minor discomfort would be almost unbearable when you've been suspended in that pleasant nothingness for so long. I couldn't believe my eyes. My head flipped to that LED blackboard, the gaudy wallpaper, the gaudy floor tiles. I was in a classroom. The classroom I woke up in, where I met...my head began to throb as I struggled to remember his name, his face, absolutely  _anything_ about him whatsoever. It had all been absorbed into the nothingness. All of the game had been absorbed into that nothingness but a single person: Rantaro. Rantaro Amami. The boy I killed. The boy who is dead because of me.  _Wait...pain. I felt pain. I...it's impossible. I am alive. Very, impossibly alive._

_And Rantaro Amami is dead. But I am alive._ My thoughts were interrupted by a loud banging noise from inside of something behind me. I turned around. I had fallen out of a locker, just like before. And just then, another person fell out of a locker. A small, brown-haired boy in a hoodie. He had some hair that stuck up, just like me. But unlike me, it looked like he fell from the locker onto his back. He sat up slightly, with his gaze fixed on the metal box he just plopped out of and started scooting backwards, away from it, his skinny little legs moving at a million miles an hour until he crashed into a desk.

"Aah!" he cried as the leg of the desk broke, causing the top of it to fall on his head. I limped over to him, my knees protesting slightly.

"Oh my God! Are you okay?" I asked, my heart pounding in my chest. So that, too, had been rescued from the nothingness. I pushed the broken desk off of him and reached out my hand. But he looked like he'd been knocked unconscious. "That's just great!" I spat to myself, a bitterness of unknown origin erupting from my chest. "Ugh..." I crouched down near his body and roughly placed my hand on his neck to check for a pulse.  _What do I do? This guy I've never met is just. Unconscious!_ I shifted my hand around his neck, searching desperately for any sign of a pulse. in my panic, I didn't notice that I was nearly strangling him until his eyes suddenly shot open and he shoved my hand away.

"Huh?!" His head shot up, and then he grabbed the back of his head. "Ow...my head." I fell backward a little bit in surprise, feeling the cool tiles intensely on the back of my bare legs.

"Hey! Are you okay? You shot back and hit your head pretty hard on the desk." I explained, averting my eyes as a sheepish smile crept its way onto my face. "It broke and fell on you."

"Yeah, I feel fine, just a little sore." he replied, still rubbing the back of his head, which was strangely large compared the rest of his thin body.

"Okay. Can you stand?"

"Yeah, I think so." he grunted. I stood up and reached out my hand to help him up. His small hand was really warm and soft. "Thanks. So...uh..." A thought then occurred to me as he steadied himself and began taking in his surroundings. From the way his eyes darted around the room, I didn't think the room was so familiar to him as it was to me.

"Oh, I guess I should tell you my name." I chuckled, sheepishly averting my eyes again. "I'm Kaede Akamatsu. What's your name?"

"Oh. I'm Makoto Naegi. It's nice to meet you, Kaede." he replied.  _Ah...Makoto._

"That's a nice name." I smiled at him. "So...you wouldn't happen to know where we are, would you?" The gaudy decor of the room was beginning to get to me, and the strange, green lighting of the LED blackboard was absolutely not helping, as were the cameras. And the monitor.  _And the fact I've been here before._

"I think we're in a classroom of some kind, but judging by all the plant growth in here and how dilapidated everything looks, I think it's been abandoned for a while now." To prove his point, he stepped back and part of the table disintegrated.

"But if it were abandoned, then why's the LED screen still on? That doesn't make a lot of sense."

"Well, I don't know if common sense really applies here..." he replied, bringing his finger up to his chin. "But that is really weird. I wonder why--" At that moment, he was interrupted by another loud clanging sound that came from behind me.

"Hey, what's that noise?" he exclaimed, looking up at the ceiling.

"It sounds like it's coming from...over there?" I pointed in the direction the sound was coming from. We both ran over to where the noise was coming from, but there didn't seem to be anything that could be making that loud noise. "It might be from another room!" I concluded, prompting the both of us to run to the door. Considering the dilapidated state of the building we were in, I wouldn't have been surprised if it just fell off, but the hinges looked pretty new and the door itself felt fairly solid; when I turned the knob, it opened with ease into a dark hallway that was in a similar state to the classroom, overgrown plants included. But unlike the classroom, there was nothing in that hallway to light the way. But there were no barricades; I don't really know why I expected there to be some kind of barricade, but I did. I looked left, and I looked right. There didn't look like there was anything there. But then I heard the sound again, still coming from the same direction as the last time, but somewhat louder this time. Makoto and I felt our way down the hallway towards the sound.

"It seems to be coming from behind this door!" I observed.

"Then let's go! But...carefully!" I nodded, and stood by the door as Makoto slowly opened it. Behind the door, it just looked like there was a normal, strangely decorated classroom, pretty similar to the one that we had woken up in. I heard that clanging sound once more, and turned to the source.

"It sounds like it's coming from the locker!" I whispered.

But before either of us could react, a tall boy with long, black hair who was tied up with what looked like a red rope fell out of the locker with a cry.


	2. Prologue II | A New Beginning | Identity Crisis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaede and Makoto do reverse bondage, aka untie a fellow student, in hopes of figuring out more about what happened. But the mystery man doesn't seem to remember anything at all, and Kaede's starting forget some things, too...

_What...why is he tied up?! What kind of sick joke is Monokuma playing?! And why does he look so familiar?_  I could have sworn that I had seen this guy before, but I just...couldn't place where. It was like when you hear a song on the radio that you don't know the name of. And because of the red rope binding his arms to his body and his legs together, the boy fell flat on his face, slamming into the tile with the full force of his own body weight. I could almost see the glimmer of a small amount of blood under his face. If it weren't for the distinctly male tone of his cry, I would have mistaken him for a girl, with his slim, delicate build and his hairstye. Even face down, he gave off an air of archaic, eerie, distinctly Japanese beauty that I could only dream of having. His hair alone put most girls to shame.

"Are you okay?!" Makoto and I exclaimed, not nearly in unison. It sounded awful, and it was also probably not very helpful for someone who probably just woke up. But the porcelain doll of a boy did not respond. In fact, he lay so still that if he had not just cried out, I would have actually thought he were a large porcelain doll. Actually, now that I think about it, a porcelain doll would have also shattered. Anyway. Makoto ran right up to him and flipped him over, with me directly in tow, revealing a pale face wearing what looked like a bondage mask.  _I probably shouldn't comment on that, he looks like he could probably kill me with a glare..._ Overall, he looked like how I'd imagine a male Kuchisake-onna to look like, except he was about 50 times more creepy. But despite the piercing glares I feel like that face could give, his golden eyes just looked...confused. There was a small cut on his forehead that was probably put there by the  ~~bondage~~ mask's zipper.

"Hey, do you remember how you got here?" Makoto asked, now trying to untie the ropes. It occurred to me that I should probably try to help, so I slipped my finger onto into the red ropes that bound him and began helping Makoto to undo them. I didn't think that now would be the best time to point out that he was tied up in shibari. _Straw...? That can't be comfortable. But bondage types like being uncomfortable..._

The boy declimed to respond, instead choosing to blankly stare up at the two of us. I felt a shiver travel down my spine when his unblinking gaze met my eyes.  _He's creepy..._

Makoto tried asking again. "Er...what's the last thing you remember?" It dawned on me that neither I nor Makoto asked each other what we knew.

"Hey, Makoto, what's the last thing you remember?" I blurted, before really thinking about it.

"Me?" He blinked, then looked back at me, losing concentration on undoing the ropes around the Creepy Mystery Man. _For all I know, this guy could be a ghost!_ I shuddered just thinking about it. "I remember...being accepted into Hope's Peak Academy, then going to the campus...then...things happened, and I ended up falling backwards off of a high place. Then I woke up here."

"Hope's Peak? I got accepted there, too! Hey, what's your talent?" I asked, somewhat bluntly. "I'm the Ultimate Pianist!" I could almost hear the guy next to me mumble something, but I couldn't really make it out, like he didn't want to be heard.

"I don't really have one. I'm the Ultimate Lucky Student." he said sheepishly. Makoto looked back down at the ropes and realized that he'd stopped untying the guy. I looked down and realize that I'd stopped, too. I started frantically fumbling around with the ropes until I realized that I was just making them tighter and started undoing them a little more carefully.

"Haha, sorry!" I chuckled, continuing to work at the ropes.  _Monokuma's got a sick sense of humor...wait, who's Monokuma, again? What was I thinking about when I fell out of the locker, anyway?_  My head began throbbing painfully as I groped through my mind, turning my brain upside down in search of what the heck a "Monokuma" is. I grabbed my head with my hands. But the harder I tried searching, the more the concept of "Monokuma" faded away until my head throbbed when I tried to remember what I was thinking of. I stopped thinking about it and decided to just help Makoto undo the ropes. "So, who are you? Were you accepted into Hope's Peak, too?" I asked the boy, who was staring somewhere below my face.  _He's looking at my boobs, too. Really is creepy._

The boy remained silent for a several seconds, before he finally answered, "...I..." He blinked at me, and finally sat up, allowing the mostly-undone ropes to simply fall off of his body. "I do believe that I can recall receiving a letter that contained something of the sort. But...what for, I regrettably can't remember for the life of me anything beyond that, much less what for." The Mystery Boy spoke formally and articulately, but in a strange way that felt a little like he was trying to be casual. "Ah, I give my thanks." he spoke, turning to the both of us. He seemed nice enough, but I still couldn't shake the feeling that he was a little bit...off. "My name is Korekiyo Shinguji, but I remember little beyond that."

"So, what do you remember?" Makoto pressed, undoing the bindings around Korekiyo's legs.

"I remember...er...does this classroom seem to be somewhat oddly decorated to you?" Korekiyo deflected, glancing over at the wallpaper. "This appears to be a classroom, but the choice of decorum is, erm...not what one would expect from a learning environment." He pointed down at the zebra stripe tiles, then over to the green wallpaper patterned with pigs. "It is quite reminiscent of the 1960's, yes?" Looking around, I could agree that it was making my eyes hurt a little bit.

"Yeah, it really does..." I replied, looking around. "My eyes hurt a little bit. But it's less bad out in the hallways, I think. Just some weird lighting."

"Oh yeah, I guess we should figure out what happened, since I don't think anyone here has any idea about it. What do you say, Kaede?" Makoto suggested, turning to me.  _Wow...he got those ropes undone really quickly. He must really be the Ultimate Lucky Student._ "The desks don't seem all that structurally sound, but the blackboard seems fully operational. So I think we should also figure out what this place even is."

"Yeah, that's a good idea. Let's go!" I commanded. Makoto and I helped Korekiyo to his feet and we exited the classroom, unaware of what was going to occur.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	3. Prologue III | A New Beginning | Chucklefuck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaede, Makoto, and the Creepy Neighborhood Amnesiac meet some new friends, just out in the hallway. Kukuku...This will be interesting.

Outside the door were probably the scariest three dudes I'd ever seen, tearing at the walls in the hallway. For the first time since I'd woken up in the locker, I saw the strange metal plates bolted to the walls.  _I wonder how I didn't notice those earlier._ But my legs didn't move.  _Man, those guys are big. Bigger than anyone I'd ever seen._ Their muscles were huge, and one of them wore a trench coat! He looked like he was in a gang, especially with his hairstyle. The music playing through my head was a contemporary piece,  _Vengeance_ by Lionel Yu. The dim lighting of the hallway created a suffocatingly oppressive atmosphere that made the presence of the three large men before me all the more ominous, even more because no matter how hard the three fought against the metal plates covering the windows, the bolted metal plating just wouldn't budge. Not knowing whether or not they were designed to keep us in...or to keep something else out...was the most terrifying thing of them all. _Is there something out there? Why are we imprisoned here?_

There was no way to know for sure what the time of day was. No time, no light. The concept of night and day would become one in a place like this. A life without sunlight...a person deprived of sunlight for a long period of time would eventually become pale and sickly, and as fragile as a porcelain doll without proper supplementation. It was as though Korekiyo had read my mind when he noted that our skeletons would soon become brittle if we didn't find a way out of here, and eventually even movement could become too much for them to handle. Our immune systems would eventually crumble from the lack of vitamin D...making it so that any pathogen that happened to make it into a place with a lot of people kept in close quarters in that kind of environment would spread like a plague and quickly eradicate everyone.  _I...suddenly hope there's some kind of medical facilities here._ It was then that I decided to talk to one of the three great men tearing at the windows. They all were equally threatening in appearance, so I walked up to the one who spoke the softest.

"H-hello?" I squeaked, my heart ramming itself against my chest. The giant looked to me, his eyes widening as he looked over my face, before his eyes traced to somewhere below it, the same place as Korekiyo.  _Great, not another creeper._ "Do you...hey, are you looking at my breasts?!" I asked, stepping back a little bit in shock.

"My apologies if I came across that way. I did not think it tactful to comment, but I supposed that I cannot avoid the matter any longer for fear of seeming unseemly." he apologized, his voice gravelly and soft. As I got a better look at him, I realized that "his" thighs were far too shapely to be those of a man, especially taking into account "his" chest and hip proportions. The girl's school uniform just drove it home for me that I was not looking at a man, but at an exquisitely muscular woman.  _She could probably crush me between her thighs with little effort. She looks so strong._ "I see that there is a scar on your neck." Her voice was masculine, but her sentence structure feminine; it was then that I could see that she was definitely a woman. She spoke almost archaically. Her manner was simply elegant and feminine, despite her masculine appearance. So beautifully, sexily feminine.

"What?!" I jumped a little and lightly touched my throat. Sure enough...there was an area that hurt to touch. I winced slightly when I felt the rough, painful skin in that patch.  _So...so that's what Korekiyo was looking at. I guess I judged him too quickly. If I saw something like that on someone, I'd stare, too._ "Oh..." I tried to remember where it came from, but no matter what, I couldn't remember. My head started throbbing again, and spots danced in my vision. This was a bad time. "I can't really remember why, actually. By the way, I'm Kaede Akamatsu, the Ultimate Pianist. Do you know where we are? What's your name?" I got a regal sense from her, the sense of a traditional girl with a long family history.  _I wonder what kind of family she comes from, the way she speaks._

"So I see...well. I am Sakura Ogami, the Ultimate Martial Artist." she said. Even in the darkness, I could see the intensity behind her icy, blue eyes. But the intensity behind her eyes was in no way frigid; rather, behind her was a piercing warmth. The eyes are the windows to the soul, they say, and her eyes were kind, if intense. Her gaze was scary, but her manner had a distinctly feminine beauty. "Do you, perchance, recall receiving a letter of acceptance from Hope's Peak Academy?"

"Yeah, actually. And so do the two guys behind me, and that's the only thing one of them remembers about himself besides his name, pretty much." I replied, deciding to finally put the two cowards behind me on the spot.

"Ah. Makoto." Sakura noted, looking behind me.

"Wh- wait. How do you know my name?" Makoto squeaked. I knew his hair was on end, even if I couldn't see him. I heard it in his voice. One of the benefits of being a pianist is golden ears!

Sakura's eyes widened for a moment, before she relaxed and said, "I simply had the feeling that your name is Makoto."

"Well..." His voice trembled, before dragging off completely. "You guessed right, I guess. My name is Makoto Naegi, and I guess it's relevant that I'm the Ultimate Lucky Student, since we're all Hope's Peak students, huh?"

"I think so, yeah." I replied, looking over at Korekiyo before looking over at the two guys who were trying to remove the metal plates with Sakura. They were both tall, one wearing a long coat, with his chest wrapped in bandages. He stared at me intensely, but I couldn't help but look at his ridiculous hairstyle in awe.  _How the heck did he maintain that?_ But before I could think, the other guy, large boy in an ill-fitting suit walked over to me and smiled. He was absolutely enormous, and it was really terrifying. He was so big that he probably didn't have shoes on because there weren't any shoes that would fit the guy. His long, scraggly hair looked like it hadn't been brushed in a long time. He was a living contradiction; a wild boy dressed like a mild-mannered gentleman. _He's...terrifying..._

"Oh! Gonta sorry for not introducing himself! Gonta is Gonta Gokuhara, the Ultimate Entomologist!" And to top it all off, his talent was a part of the natural sciences, the study of some of the world's tiniest creatures...actually, that's really gross. "Do you like bugs?" he asked, smiling at me as if insects weren't...really gross. I felt sick to my stomach. But it must have shown on my face so much that even in the dark, he saw it. Because before I could answer, his sunny expression darkened. "You...don't like bugs? How can you not like bugs?!" he yelled, before he was interrupted by another voice. The voice of the scariest looking guy.

"Hey. Don't treat girls like that." I heard the cracking of knuckles and turned to the source of the voice. It was the scariest of them all, a large boy with big, ridiculous hair. And he was buff. Like, really buff. And even in the dark...I could still tell he looked dangerous. Even his voice seemed dangerous. "You wanna be a fuckin' gentleman or something, right?"

"Ah! Sorry!" Gonta replied, his expression changing very fast. He looked horrified, even with the poor lighting. "What's your name, by the way? Gonta never asked..."

"Th' name's Mondo Owada. What's yours?" the guy said. "Guess I should say how I even got here, huh? Ultimate Biker Gang Leader."

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Kaede Akamatsu, the Ultimate Pianist." I said.  _Doesn't look like a good idea to get on his bad side...._ "And, uh...guys..." I squeaked. I turned to the other guys who were with me. One of them seemed to have run away, while Makoto took a shaky step forward.

"I heard your name already, jackass. I wanna know who the fuck the other guy is." the delinquent grumbled, cracking his knuckles. "Seemed super girly to me. Not to mention a fuckin' coward."

"Kukuku..."

"Wh-" It was then that I heard a loud thwacking sound, the sound of someone being punched in the face. Then the thud of bodies hitting the floor. Then another thwack, with assorted shouting all the while. Meanwhile, Sakura had finally managed to pry one of the metal plates off of the window, which fell to the floor with a clunk and illuminated the dark hallway. I finally got a good look at everyone. And what I saw, besides Sakura looking a little bit worn out, was a fight. Well, more like a beating, with the obvious strength difference between the guys involved. It was almost comical how unfairly matched it was, with Mondo on top of Korekiyo, punching him in the face.

"What the fuck are you trying to pull? Do you wanna fucking die?!" Mondo threatened, menacingly. "'Cuz I'll tear your goddamn ass apart limb by fucking limb if you ever even think about pulling that shit ever again, you son of a bitch. DO YOU FUCKING UNDERSTAND ME?" Unsurprisingly, it's a little difficult to respond when you're being punched in the face by a literal gang leader every two seconds. So he didn't, and Mondo yanked him up by his collar as a response. "I SAID," he threatened again. "DO. YOU. UNDERSTAND. ME?" I couldn't see his face, but it must have been menacing. Which is why it pretty much shocked everyone even more than the fight did when Korekiyo decided to chuckle.

"Kukuku...so I see."

"You sure have balls to be laughing at me, you know that?! But shit! HAVING BALLS AIN'T ENOUGH FOR ME, CHUCKLEFUCK! I'M GONNA TEACH YOU A LESSON YOU'LL NEVER FUCKING FORGET! DON'T FUCK WITH ME!"

"HEY!!" Makoto yelled.

_This...is going to be a while...even with Sakura and Gonta pulling them apart..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up on The Game of the Blackened: another chapter


	4. Prologue IV | A New Beginning | Bring it In, Guys!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Outside of the window is a beach, where Kaede falls and everyone else already seems to be. What's going on? Is that a camera?! And what's with the talking stuffed animal?!

It really did take a while to pull the two guys apart, but eventually, Gonta was able to pull Mondo off of Korekiyo. The clear winner of the confrontation wiped the blood off of his knuckles as he looked out the window to see what was outside, while Korekiyo was spitting out blood, the bandages on his hands being of use to him in mopping up the blood that poured from his nose.  _That...does not look pleasant._  The sun shone brightly through the window, and when I walked over there, I froze, just as Sakura had. She was even more beautiful in the light, with her long, white hair and her shapely, muscular form. She was beautiful, with an air of elegance about her. A beauty I could never even dream of matching.

Without really thinking, I stepped towards the window, and the first thing I saw was sunlight. Blindingly bright sunlight. It took some time for my eyes to adjust to that extremely bright light, a light so bright that it consumed my entire being. A subito forte in the symphony of life. But the next thing I knew...I was looking out at a beach. Numerous seagulls called out, loud and clear, their calls ringing across the beach with the sound of the blue waves crashing on that pearly, white sand. It was like a movie set, or some kind of resort, palm trees included. The smell of the beach was stronger now that I was at the window, and I noticed that there wasn't any glass on it. I leaned out the window to get a better look, and my face immediately became acquainted with the hot, fine sand.  _That's never going to come out of my hair._ My own momentum caused me to drop from the window entirely, my whole body now consumed by the sand, which found its way into my socks, my shoes, and even my underwear.

I felt myself sliding forward, and I rolled down the hill, sand becoming ingrained in my sweater. In that moment, I had become one with that white, Hollywood sand, the sand gritting into my legs and turning my clothes into their own beach. It started out pretty uncomfortable, but as my clothes became filled with sand, it soon became more like lying on the beach as I skidded to a stop at the bottom of the hill. It was warm and comfortable. But this state of tranquility was not to last as I slowly became aware of the crowd of people around me. I sat up to get a better idea of where I was, and immediately noticed that my skirt had flipped up, revealing my pink, frilly, now-sandy panties to the people staring at me.

"..." I jerked up and pulled my skirt back over my underwear as quickly as possible, mortified with myself; there was no way to know how long everyone saw my underwear. It slowly dawned on me that the others might have seen my underwear when I fell out the window, too. But unlike this crowd of people, they probably didn't get a good look. At least, I hope not. I stood up and dusted some of the sand from my thighs, trying to subtly get some of the sand out of my underwear at the same time.  _If someone notices this, I'm going to die._ I fidgeted, hoping it wasn't too obvious that sand got between my butt cheeks. My shoes were a desert.

"Kaede! Are you alright?!" called someone from behind me, his voice echoing across the vast beach. I turned around; the building behind me on the hill I'd just rolled off of was little more than some kind of beach cottage. A beach cottage with bolted windows and five other people running out of it; Makoto, Sakura, Gonta, Mondo, Korekiyo, in order of how urgently they seemed to be moving. I turned back around to see the people who stood before me, and it was quite the group. From a portly, perverted chef, to an elegant maid and a composed swordswoman, to a tall guy who dressed like he was still in middle school, there was truly a variety of people standing over me, gawking at the perhaps ridiculous scene that had just played out before them.

"Hey, you alright?" asked one, a guy with short, spiky red hair and several facial piercings.  _Please don't bring up my underwear._

"Yeah, I'm fine."  _Please don't bring up my underwear._ "What's your name?"

"I'm Leon Kuwata, the Ultimate Baseball Pro. What's yours?"  _Please don't bring up my underwear._

"Oh, I'm Kaede Akamatsu, the Ultimate Pianist. It's nice to meet you."  _Please don't bring up my underwear._ "What's your guys's names?" I asked, looking around at the rest of the group. I noticed that Makoto and the others had joined us. In all, we counted 15.

"I am Kirumi Tojo, the Ultimate Maid." uttered the elegant woman in a maid outfit, the sunlight nicely highlighting her short, platinum blonde hair.

"I'm Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars, and the Ultimate Astronaut!" boomed a fairly tall guy with spiky, purple hair that seemed to defy the laws of gravity.

"Peko Pekoyama, the Ultimate Swordswoman." introduced a mature girl with braided, silver hair and glasses. Her red eyes were especially notable, their seriousness boring into my heart.

"Chiaki Nanami. Ultimate Gamer." stated a shapely girl with sleepy eyes, and shoulder-length, feather cut blonde hair. She wore a purple hoodie, and definitely seemed to be the type to be a gamer. She was pretty sexy.

"Celestia Ludenberg." stated the girl wearing a gothic lolita-style dress, rather matter-of-factly.

"You...are Japanese, right?" I asked her.

"Yes."

"Is that your real name?"

"Yes." she replied, her expression unreadable. "You may call me Celeste."

"I am called Gundham Tanaka, the Supreme Overlord of Ice!" The introductions grew increasingly dramatic as time moved forward, almost as if people were trying to make themselves more memorable. But somehow, I felt that that couldn't be the case, because it seemed like this is how some of these people actually were. It was quite strange to see people like that, and it definitely left an impression; for instance, the guy before me was a guy who stood taller than me, yet dressed and acted like he was in middle school, contradicting his booming voice and hamsters.

"I'm...Mikan Tsumiki, the Ultimate Nurse. D-do I have permission to remember your name?" squeaked a meek girl with unevenly cut purple hair, wearing a pink nurse dress.

"Yeah, you do..."  _She's definitely a little strange..._ "It's nice to meet you." I smiled at her, but it didn't seem to help her anxiety. She actually seemed to become more nervous. I turned back, the people behind me also introducing themselves.  _I'm glad nobody mentioned the fact my underwear was on display for the whole world to see-_

"Hello!~ I am Teruteru Hanamura. Officially, I am known as the Ultimate Cook, but...could you please call me the Ultimate Chef? It has more of a big city flavor to it." I looked down at the final person, the only one whose introduction I hadn't heard yet. His name was Teruteru. He wore a white chef's outfit and had a similar hairstyle to Mondo. He was also quite a bit shorter than me. He seemed alright enough-

"Nice to meet you, Teruteru."

"By the way...I quite enjoy the view from down here. Perhaps it was not as pleasant as the view of you when you, ahem, first arrived, but it is a pleasant view nonetheless, _oui_?" His demeanor suddenly changed, his eyes suddenly emitting a raw, sexual vibe as a small amount of blood dripped from his button nose. A powerful feeling of unquenchable bloodlust bloomed from inside of me as I glared down at him. I didn't even feel my body moving as I stepped back to punt him until I swung my feet, only for there to be no ground beneath them. Instead, it was my arms being supported. I turned to my side to see that Sakura had pulled me away from the perverted chef. She put me down after moving me away from Teruteru. It probably took all of her willpower not to punt him herself as she returned to her vague spot in the crowd.

"So like, everyone here seems to be Ultimates, right?" Leon asked, looking around at his surroundings. "Anyone have any idea what we're doing here?" Judging from the general murmurs of the crowd, it seemed that everyone was about as clueless as he was as to our whereabouts.

"Is that a camera?" shouted Kaito, pointing at a tripod that had been set up not so far away from where we stood. It was pointed directly at us.

"It's on!" exclaimed Gonta, his whole body animated with shock. And before I knew it, the group broke down into a panic.

"Where are we?!"

"What's that TV thing?!"

"Have we been kidnapped?!"

"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!" Shouting erupted from every which way, every single person making a simultaneous effort to make sense of the situation. But the louder it became, the less sense things began to make. My mind began to scramble from trying to keep track of every single conversation, the group descending deeper into absolute chaos the longer this went on. It probably wasn't that long, but time and space seemed to disappear, making way for chaos and overpowering sunlight. The glitter of the sunlight reflecting off of the ocean caught my eye. I turned to look at it, the loud noise circling around and around in my head, fermenting in the heat of the sunlight beating down upon us. A drop of sweat rolled through my hair, down the back of my neck and into my shirt. I vaguely heard a high, squeaky voice through all of this, as the benefit of my musician's ears. My mind began going blank.

"HEY!!!" Until we all heard a loud shout, a yell that must have taken great effort on the part of its origin, with how high and gentle it was. And just like that, as though someone had cast a spell, the group fell silent. We all turned to see who had yelled, the voice not seeming to belong to any of the people here. We expected to see the person who brought us here, another human. Perhaps a meek human, bespectacled with a thin build and mousy features, someone whose physical description would match the soft voice we heard.

But what we saw instead was a pink, stuffed rabbit.


	5. Prologue V | A New Beginning | Miss Monomi's Practice Lesson, Encore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here she is! Sorry for the garbage quality, I lost the other one. >< Anyway, here you go!

I blinked once.

Twice.

Three times.

The situation felt weirdly familiar, and yet different. And I couldn't for the life of me place why or how; every time I tried, my head began throbbing unbearably. But there it was, in broad daylight. No amount of blinking cleared it away. I swore I was seeing things.

"Does...does anyone else see a pink, stuffed rabbit?" Makoto asked, glancing around at everyone else with saucer eyes.

"Yeah..." replied Mondo, his eyes wide with wonder.

"You too?!" Leon exclaimed, pointing at the lupine stuffed animal.

"What...? T...This is a joke, right?" stuttered Teruteru, shuddering and glancing around in confusion.

"Hello everyone!" it greeted, waving a pink, magical girl-like staff at everyone.

"What...are you...?" I muttered, staring at the rabbit in utter disbelief. "You're...real?"

"What?! Of course I'm real!" it huffed indignantly, its voice childish and meek. "I am the squeezably soft Magical Miracle Girl ★ Usami, but you can just call me Usami! And I may not look like it, but I'm your squeezably soft teacher!" _...Did it just say it's a magical girl?!_

"Did you have to say the star...?" Leon asked, his voice laced with confusion; he was obviously still wary of the toy that had just appeared.

"What is the meaning of this?! Where are we?!" Peko demanded, gesturing to the monitors and cameras. "And how do we know you're our teacher?!" At her query, the rabbit, Usami, seemed...visibly confused, as though we should already know the answers.

"...You don't know why you're here...?" she asked.

"Don't we go to Hope's Peak?" Mondo demanded, opening the floodgates and releasing the barrage of questions thst everyone had. "What're we doing at some fucking island? I mean, not that I'm complaining or anything, just...nobody knows how we got here."

"Just...where are we?!"

"What could possibly be the meaning of this?"

"To what infernal plane have we been taken!?"

"How did we get here?!"

"May I request an explanation for why we have been brought here?"

"Ha-wa-wa..." Usami stammered. "Ha-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa...N...no way! You're supposed to...Something's gone wrong...very, very wrong...Oh no..." she trailed off, turning away, her head in her stubby paws, from the group, who now had more questions than answers. "You're...you're supposed to remember stuff...and...And!" Usami looked to be on the verge of tears...wait. How was that possible? "A-Anyway!!! I'll...I'll just explain it! Hope's Peak Academy has decided...To take all of you out on a special, teacher-chaperoned vacation!" she declared boldly, in an attempt to take control of the situation. "So...! Just...Enjoy the island resort, and I can sort out the rest! Let this ocean wash away all the bad things!"

This was the last straw. "What?!" I burst, shaking my head in disbelief. "But...we haven't even ever actually stepped foot into Hope's Peak, how...How could we already be on a school trip?"

"Uh..." Usami seemed to be avoiding my question. "You'll know when I fix this...Anyway! The rules! Please no littering, because it hurts the environment and makes the island less beautiful, and that's a no-no! Garbage everywhere isn't relaxing! Next rule! Extreme violence...is a big no-no! Even just thinking about it horrifies me! Kyaa!!! So scary!!! And finally...Just enjoy yourselves and cultivate hope!" she announced, waving a paw (?) at everyone.

"So...Why did you bring us here?" Makoto asked, eyes still wide with disbelief. Usami seemed especially taken aback by Makoto's query, but I could have just been imagining things. She looked at him, up and down, a look of shock stitched into her features, as though she were thinking, _What? You too?! No_ _way_...It all felt so...so unreal... _Is this...reality? What...? This is like some kind of...what?_

"Uh...The purpose of this trip!!! Is to collect Hope Fragments and cultivate hope, by making friends with each other! That is the main purpose of this trip! And thus...cultivating your friendships...is everyone's homework! Love Love!" She slinks away, before suddenly popping up again, one last time. "Uh...the cameras and monitors are just so I can keep everyone safe and communicate with you...Don't worry! There aren't any in the bathrooms! Now, the map to all your cottages and the other islands is in your e-handbooks, which should be somewhere on your person! It'll also show your location, to you and everyone else, so you can get around easier and be friends! Isn't that amazing? Love love!" And then she left for real, seeming to be in some kind of hurry. Despite being a stuffed animal, she was extremely expressive, with her worry sewn into her features.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Teruteru finally screamed, clutching his brown pompadour in his balled fists. His confusion and fear eruped from his mouth, breaking the awkward silence that had overtaken the group.

"I mean...this is kinda weird, but at the same time...it's a free vacation, basically, so why don't we enjoy it?" Chiaki suggested, speaking for the first time in a while. "Doesn't seem to be a catch or anything." she shrugged, when everyone looked at her incredulously.

"I suppose...that there is nothing we can do but remain here and discover the secret behind our missing memories ourselves." Kirumi added, a look of worry still etched into her face. "Perhaps the key to solving our predicament lies within this island."

Everyone stood there for an indeterminate period of time, looking around with suspicion and fear before everything finally sunk in.

"I mean, this is weird, but that rabbit thing we should know why we're here, and that means we agreed, so it can't be anything bad!" Kaito finally said, pumping his fist. "So, I guess...let's just enjoy ourselves and let Usami fix...whatever happened. I mean, it _is_ a free vacation!" He beamed and gave everyone a thumbs up.

"He's right. We should trust Usami...probably." Chiaki added with a small smile.

"Free vacation? Hell yeah!" Leon shouted, his face showing no signs of the worry it had shown before. It was like...I didn't know how to describe it. _Well, that's a change in mood._ I still had my reservations, but I put those aside. _This is...a weird situation. But the wording of "school trip"...That means this is Hope's Peak Academy's doing, so I think we can trust it!_ I stepped forward, gesturing to all the others who were more apprehensive.

"Come on, maybe we can also investigate!" There was a certain unshakeable apprehensiveness, a doubt, in my voice, but I think the message came across, as one, two, three people started walking towards the other parts of the island.

But...All the way in the back of my head, a small voice that I couldn't silence kept piping up, kept whispering doubts into my ear.

_Something has already gone wrong._

_Something else is going to go wrong, too._


	6. Prologue VI | A New Beginning | A Wild Monokuma Appears!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to explore the rest of the island! But before they even have time to enjoy their island vacation, the sky darkens and their joy is cut short by the appearance of a single bear.

> **Rule 1:** Extreme violence is prohibited on this island. Please live peaceful and relaxing lives with your fellow students.
> 
> **Rule 2:** Be considerate of each other and work together to obtain Hope Fragments.
> 
> **Rule 3:** Littering is not allowed. Let us coexist with this island's bountiful nature in "mutual prosperity."
> 
> **Rule 4:** The lead teacher cannot directly interfere with the students. An exception to this rule is made if any student violates a rule.

I shut off the screen of my e-handbook and put it back into my backpack, where I had found it. _I still can't believe_ _this..._ I shook my head and sighed. Everyone else seemed to have similar feelings about this, even if it wasn't necessarily a _bad_ thing, even if something got flubbed in the beginning. _I mean, I can't exactly expect a thing like that to be super competent, right? Probably...Just a mistake with the fla01110011 01101000 01100010 01100001 01100011—_ My train of thought was suddenly interrupted, as though something had...interfered with it? _What is this? Well, guess it's better if I don't think too hard about it._ I walked up to a fence around what looked like some kind of ranch. Above the gate was a sign that said, "Usami Corral." _Guess she's not exactly humble...?_ Gundham and Gonta were here, looking at the animals. It smelled very strongly of animals, too.

"Tsk...Such a pitiful existence..." Gundham muttered, looking at the cows and shaking his head. "To be born and bred, solely for the benefits of humans...Truly, it is pitiful to see." The dark-haired boy stood with his arms crossed, and seemed to be surveying the area.

Meanwhile, Gonta was looking around more closely. "Yes, it does make Gonta kind of sad...But, Gonta supposes that humans need to eat, too..." The longer-haired boy was on the ground, looking through the dirt. "Look! Ants!" The gentle giant seemed to be moving gingerly as he oberved the insects, I guess trying not to hurt them. "Does Gundham like bugs?"

"...Your compassion for even such insignificant creatures as insects... **I understand not how you came to be** **here**..."

"Huh?" I exclaimed. _He sounded like...He knew something about why we all are here?_

"Such creatures as mere insects are the basis of life for many demon beasts! Yes, your astral level is truly a match for my **Four Dark Devas of Destruction!** " He turned to me. "To the mortal known as Kaede...The presence of a fellow beastspeaker has cleared the obfuscating fog around the All-Seeing Eye, even if for but a single moment!"

" _Huh_?" I still didn't understand...I stepped back.

"Oh! San-D told Gonta Gundam remembered something!"

"Yes! Step back, O Mortal! Tremble in fear of I, Gundham Tanaka, **Supreme Overlord of Ice!** " he declared, before turning to Gonta. "It must be fate's dark doing, that I'd meet a fellow beastspeaker in this hellish domain!" I took a few more steps back, my shoes squishing in the wet, sloppy mud of the farm. _He really does seem like a middle schooler...Maybe he had just enrolled in high school when he got_ _ **scouted**_ _?_ But I didn't get much more time to think because it was then that Gonta suddenly hoisted me onto his shoulder!

"Kaede, look out!" he shouted, pointing at the ground beneath me. "Kaede nearly stepped on the ant's house!" I looked down and saw an anthill, and nearly cringed at the idea of the ants crawling into my shoes... _But not around Gonta._ I remembered how he was about insects, from that first encounter in the dark. It was good that I remembered, because he set me down a little bit away from the anthill and said, "Kaede doesn't want to hurt bugs, right? Only bad people like hurting bugs!" he snarled, flexing his large muscles and assuming a battle stance. His face was into a terrifying expression of rage, making his already scary appearance even scarier. It was slightly less scary than it was in the dark, but that wasn't very helpful.

"I don't want to hurt the bugs!" I insisted, waving my hands back and forth. It seemed sufficient, because the giant calmed down and smiled at me.

"Ah, Kaede's a good person! Does Kaede want to watch the ants?" he asked, crouching near the anthill and observing them.

"Ah, uh..." I stammered. "I'd love to, but I am investigating the island right now. But I'll do it later, okay?" I smiled at him, already making my way out of the farm.  _I won't tell him that I think they're gross._

"Okay!" I stepped out of the farm gate onto the sandy path, Gundham still enthusiastically talking about raising demon beasts behind me.

During my investigation, I learned that the airplanes in the airport had no engines, the supermarket had a vending machine with a familiar design...The hotel had cabins and a restaurant, as well as an old building, there was a statue in the center of Jabberwock Island, and there was...a gachapon...? On the beach where we all met? The building I'd woken up in was apparently a school, I guess for the island residents...But there were no other people here, and it was extremely dilapidated. _That is very_ _strange..._ I tried not to think about it too much.

As I walked on the beach to evolve the pet in my e-handbook, the monitor near me clicked on, showing Usami's rabbit face. _She's actually pretty cute..._

"Hello, my precious students! Could everyone please meet up at the beach for a special surprise? Love love!" The monitor clicked off. _A surprise? I wonder what it is!_ I made my way over to the beach where we started at.

When I arrived, else was already there. In all, there were 15 of us, plus Usami, who seemed a little bit worried now.

"..."

"..."

"..." Everyone watched on silently as the rabbit looked around frantically. I thought I heard her muttering, "Where is she? She was here??" But no one else heard her, so I decided not to comment on it. _I'm probably just hearing things..._

"Who are you waiting for? Let's get this thing started already!" Leon cheered, pumping his fist. "Everyone's here!" Usami seemed taken aback, as though we should know who's missing. _But this is everyone who was here in the beginning, right?_ Several minutes passed, with nobody else appearing, before Usami finally shook her head and turned to face all of us.

"Uh...Welcome, students! The first reward for gathering Hope Fragments, since you all got them all so quickly, is a beach party!"

"Really? A beach party??" Leon grinned, taking a look around at everyone before returning his gaze to the rabbit. "Awesome!"

"Ah, but are we not forgetting something?" Celeste interjected, holding her fist to her mouth and leaning toward the baseball player. "We have no swimsuits, nor do we have any of our other belongings. Unless you suggest that we swim in our clothing...?"

"There are many ways we could do this." Teruteru suggested, his nose bleeding. _Goddammit._ "I mean, what most of the girls are likely wearing shouldn't get wet."

"Don't go around saying that stuff, you pervert." Mondo growled, cracking his knuckles as though he was preparing to punt the small chef into the sun if he tried anything.

"Well, I mean...We could always just take off our cloth—" I started, before Usami interrupted me, a horrified expression on her face. _I'm just not going to ask how she does that..._

"No! You can't take off your clothes! This is a school trip and it would be indecent!" she exclaimed. "Please take these school swimsuits!" She waved her wand in a circle, and two boxes of school swimsuits appeared, as well as a bunch of swimming floats and balls!

"Hey, I finally get to see a bunch of girls in school swimsuits!" I said, smiling at the pink robot, who looked further scandalized by my joke.

"Ha-wa-wa...You're like a creepy old man..." Usami seemed to whither away as she said it. I looked to my side, and saw Makoto had a similar look of concern on his face, as did several of my classmates.

"Somebody finally gets it!" Teruteru chirped. _I think him thinking that is a bad thing._ But to my right, several of the others—Mostly guys, actually—had already taken some swimsuits and ran up to the schoolhouse to change.

"C'mon, guys! Let's go swimming!" I grabbed a swimsuit from the box and ran up the hill, trying to keep sand from getting into my shoes.

"Yeah!" Makoto finally decided, grabbing a pair of swim trunks and running after me.

After I changed, I noticed that I was the only girl who put on a swimsuit. _Aw...I wanted to see Chiaki in a school swimsuit...Oh well._ I stepped into the water and started splashing around, washing my self-consciousness away.

"Haha, this is the life!" Leon chuckled, floating on his back on an inflatable ring. He, and all of the other guys, wore a standard issue pair of navy blue school swim trunks. I wore a standard issue school one piece swimsuit.

"Fuck yeah!" Mondo shouted, shooting a beach ball to Leon. "Hey, heads up, baseball star!"

"Hey, no fair!" The ball hit the baseball pro in the head and bounced into the water. "Makoto, help me!"

"Why me?!"

"Heh heh heh...Mondo, do you want to rub sunscreen on each other?" Teruteru asked, smiling suggestively at the biker gang leader. Mondo glanced over at Leon, who was still struggling to get the beach ball.

"I mean, sure. Guess I should put it on anyway."

"I'll go first...Ah, this is nice!"

"...What is this sudden, insatiable bloodlust?"

"Keep away!" Kaito cheered, popping up from under the water and taking the beach ball under his arm, swimming away. I chuckled as Leon flipped his inner tube over trying to reach the beach ball, and Makoto chased after Kaito to try to give the ball back. But as I stepped toward them to participate, the sky darkened with stormy clouds, complete with thunder and lightning. The temperature dropped sharply, making the hair on my arms stand at attention.

"Kyaaaaaaaaa!" Usami screamed, waving her stick around. "This isn't supposed to happen! Get out of the water!" she instructed, waving at us with her stubby arms. I stepped out of emerged from the water, feeling the wind pick up on my wet skin as walked back to the beach.

"Hey, what gives?"

"Didn't you check the weather report before doing this?"

"Aw, man!"

"And I'd just grabbed a swimsuit, too..."

"Stay back!" Usami shouted, turned toward an approaching cloud of dust. "I'll handle this!" She pulled out her magic wand and dissipated the dust cloud...

To reveal a black and white teddy bear, standing before us imposingly. One half looked like any other teddy bear you'd find in a toy store...but the other half looked like some horrible demon.

"Upupupu...Upupupupupu! It seems we meet again, Usami!" It stepled forward and snatched the wand right out of Usami's paws. "Hmm...Last time, you were my little sister...What shall I make you this time?" it pondered. Everyone stood shocked, staring at the ridiculous scene.  _Aw, I guess some of the other girls were planning on swimming..._

"You will return my magic wand, right this instant!" she ordered, an unusually assertive tone to her voice.

"...Nah. Actually, I think I'll just break it instead." it decided, snapping the wand in half as though it were nothing. "You can just be you this time, upupu..."

"What the hell is this?!"

"Oh? This is...Interesting."

"Isn't that what Usami used to turn a cow into a chicken?! It's broken now?!"

"The power of Hell has just been unleashed!" The group fell into an uproar, everyone staring at the scene in disbelief.

"This isn't happening...This isn't real...This isn't real...No siree bob!"

"Wh..." Makoto finally spoke, pointing at the bear. "What are you!?" he demanded, his voice elevated to a shout, conveying an emotion that I didn't even know he was capable of. "What is the meaning of this?!"

"Upupu...Such irony..."

"I'm...The one and only Monokuma!"

"And it's time for what everybody came for! That's right...It's time for the **Ultimate Punishment**...to begin!"

"It's Punishment Time!"


	7. Prologue VII | A New Beginning | END

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Monokuma's chilling announcement...Comes more chilling announcements.  
> But with despair comes hope, and Makoto, Kirumi, Kaito, and Kaede begin building hope in the others.

"Huh?" It was as though the world had stopped. I stumbled backwards; my legs felt almost as though they had turned into stiff jelly.

"You heard me! It's time for your Ultimate Punishment—a killing game!" it declared again, its voice overflowing with sadistic glee. _A...killing game?_ "That's right! In order to get out of here...You have to kill somebody!" It let out a vicious cackle, a noise that a teddy bear should never have been able to make.

"P...Punishment?" Leon stammered, his eyes as wide as dinner plates. "But we didn't do anything! What the hell are we being punished for?!"

The bear just cackled in response. "Hahahahahaha! _Hahahahahahahahahahaha_!"

"So you were the one who stole their memories!" Usami fumed, pointing at it. "This is...This is just too cruel!"

"Upupu...Such hypocrisy. So it's okay when you do it, but not me? Ah...Whatever. That's right, I stole all of your memories! Of your school life, your killing games...Everything from after you got your acceptance letters! _Hahahahahaha!_ " it gloated. "Of course, to get out of here, you also have to survive the **Class Trial** , so don't just think you can kill someone and escape without having to get away with it!"

"...And if we are found out?" Korekiyo pressed, gesturing to the bear. "You said we must **survive the Class Trial**. Does that mean that we die if we are found out?"

"Upupu...That's right! If you are found out...You will be executed! But if you aren't...Then I'll execute everyone else, and you get to go free!" the bear elaborated, voice overflowing with glee. "You're a smart cookie, even with your head completely empty of memories!"

"You...You!" Usami fumed, glaring at the other plushie with tears forming in her eyes. "You stole his memories?! How much did you steal?!"

"Upupu...Just everything!" Monokuma giggled. "And like I said, I stole everyone's memories of their school lives, their killing school lives, their crimes...And their executions!"

"E...Executions?!" Makoto stammered, his entire body poised with absolute horror at the situation we were in. "But...You said this was...the 'Ultimate Punishment...' You're punishing us because you messed up executing us for crimes we're not even allowed to remember?! That's...that's...You're full of shit!"

"I never expected to hear those words out of your mouth..." I thought I heard Sakura whisper.

"That's...You're lying! There's no way we could just _lose our memories_ after a specific point in time! There's no way that our memories could just be...taken, either! That's bullshit!" Kaito shouted. "And there's no way someone like say, Gonta, would kill somebody! Especially if, say, we were in another killing game like you said, and he knew everyone else would die if he got away with it!"

"Upupu...Tough crowd." Monokuma giggled. "You're still gonna put up a huge fight, huh? Well, whatever. Just ask the creepy guy, if you don't believe that I can steal memories. And anyway, you'll all snap eventually. I mean, you already have! That's why you're all here! Upupu...Upupupu!" And with that, he was gone.

"Ha-wa-wa..." Usami seemed extremely...out of it. I decided not to ask her anything. "Ha-wa-wa-wa..."

"Dear heavens, what was that?" Celeste finally said, her hand by her mouth. "This all seems like some sort of elaborate trick. I wonder...Could this Monokuma be associated with Usami?"

"Ha-wa-wa-wa-wa..." Usami stuttered. "Th-there's no way! In heck! That I'd work with him! Honest!"

"Seems like a long way to go for a senior prank, though..." Mondo remarked, looking over to the side. "And, is that true? You really lost all your memories? 'S That why you don't know not to creep up on people randomly in creepy, decrepit buildings? I mean, not that I was scared or anything."

"The way you punched me seems to suggest otherwise." Korekiyo replied.

"Do you know who you're fucking talking to?!"

"This isn't real...There's no way this is real..." Teruteru mumbled.

"A...A killing game?" Mikan whimpered. "I'm sorry for doing whatever I did!"

"Mikan, may I say something?" Kirumi interjected.

"...Hee hee hee! S...Sure...B-but first...No one's ever asked me about how I feel before...Could you do it again?"

"Of course. Mikan, may I say something?"

"Hee hee hee! Someone asked me for permission for something! Of course!" _What has her life been like? That sounds really rough...And for such a cute girl, too..._

"I do not believe that that bear is being entirely truthful about the reasons behind our imprisonment." Usami whimpered when she used the word 'imprisonment.'

"It is likely nothing that you did." The white-haired woman's voice was motherly, reassuring; but at the same time, it was stern, professional. _Just like an ideal maid._

"So...What do we do?" Peko asked, as though she were asking for further orders.

"I recommend that we carry on as normal, and investigate every way that we possibly can in order to escape." she replied.

"Fufufu...You think that we can just try to escape? Monokuma has made very clear his terms." Celeste counters, leaning forward. "In such a situation, it is survival of the fittest. If you are not fit, if you cannot adapt to this situation we are in, then you will just die."

"Kyaaaaaaa!" Usami screamed. "So scary! Don't say scary things like that!!"

"Even if they may be true?" Korekiyo questioned. "Kukuku."

"'Tis the absolute law of nature..." Gundham added. "And it is but the arrogance of humanity to believe that we are exempt from that law."

"D...Don't worry! I, Usami, swear to get all of you out of this alive! Even...Even without my magic wand!" she declared, before disappearing.

"Dunno about you, but she doesn't feel too reliable." Kaito stated. "We might just have to do it all ourselves."

."Well, I think this is something we can do! After all, we're Ultimates, right?" I responded, pumping my fists. "So, I think we should all resist Monokuma, and get out of here!"

"N...There's nothing to resist! Because it's not real..." Teruteru mumbled.

"Such an arrogantly naive way of thinking...Beautiful..." Korekiyo said. _He looks creepy...and he really is creepy. But even so..._

_I want...to get out of here...and smile, with everyone else. Yeah, that's what I want to do!_

"Come on, then we can get out of here!" Makoto declared, a smile on his face. "We can all get out of here, no matter what!"

* * *

**PROLOGUE: END**

**Surviving Students: 15**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! My little sister and I are collaborating on this! Go read her half of the story, the Life of the Spotless!  
> Read it, she's a better writer than me!  
> Read it for hope!


	8. Chapter I | Rising Action | Daily Life I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaede looks over the new rules, and goes to her cabin, the day's events still fresh in her mind. Maybe it'd be best to just sleep on it for now.

But despite what I said...What Makoto and Kirumi and Kaito and I said, about how if we worked together, we would be able to get out of there...Despite what Usami said, about how she would 'get everyone out of this alive...' Everyone still glanced around at the others, suspiciously. I guess what Celeste and Gundham and Korekiyo said had its effect on everyone, because nothing anyone said could stop the suspicious glances, could change the way everyone's posturing and demeanors changed, the way our distrustful glances flitted around the group, wondering who would be the first to betray us...The suspicion sown by the bear and nurtured by those three was infective. We stood there for an indeterminate amount of time, until it began to get dark, before finally, one by one, people began chancing the return to the hotel, the possibility in their mind that someone would betray them.

I, too, eventually found myself back at the hotel, the trip back feeling like a surreal blur. My body had long since dried, but the cool of the night still bit into my still swimsuit-clad body, my clothes still in my backpack. _I'll need to return the swimsuit to Usami eventually. But after everything that happened, I think Usami would understand if I waited until tomorrow morning, right...?_ The events of earlier that day played through my head on repeat. _That bear...Where have I seen him before? Why does the concept of being in a killing game sound so familiar?_ My head throbbed as I combed through my memories for the answer. I tried so hard, it felt as though my eyes would bulge from their sockets from the pressure forming behind them. My hand reached back to the rough, painful band that ran around my neck, as though I had been hanged. It was only then that I realized that it went all the way around my neck, with more intensity in the front. _I might have to bring it up with everyone else tomorrow, to ask if anyone else has any unexplained_ _injuries..._ I looked down at my own body, and realized for the first time that it was covered in massive, horrifying bruises that were painful to the touch. _Why didn't anyone tell me about these?!_ But before I could really think about much further, a nearby monitor flicked on, displaying the familiar, unfriendly face of our captor.

"Ahem...Hope's Peak Academy's School Trip Executive Committee has an announcement to make! It is now 10:00 pm! Nighttime can be confusing...If you're out at night and accidentally meet a killer, then it sucks to be you! But if you're worried about that and can't sleep, I've prepared a cottage on the hotel grounds for each of you. Every single one of you, please feel free to rest in your own rooms. However, before you go to bed, I strongly recommend you lock your doors. You never know who might be planning to kill you! Upupupupu...Bye-byeeeee!"

 _A...A cottage...? Okay_ _then..._ I swallowed my suspiciond about it, figuring that since he wants us to kill each other, he wouldn't place any fatal traps there, and chanced a look over at the cottages, an area that I had noticed but not really investigated when I was investigating earlier. _Before...That_ _happened..._ I stepped onto the boardwalk and turned left, and took a good look at the portraits on the mailboxes. _These seem to be pretty_ _nice..._ But the idea that Monokuma had prepared them made me wonder about how long he'd been here, just biding his time, like a cobra, waiting to strike... _No, don't think about that!_

"I don't think you'll find your cottage on this side, for if I were to hazard a guess based on the portraits on the mailboxes, it would seem that this portion of the cottage area has the boy's cottages." I jumped in terror at the sudden voice behind me, and spun around to face the way-too-close Korekiyo, one of the people who'd helped Monokuma sow doubt into everyone's minds. _No, don't resent him for feeling the way he does! It's a normal way to feel! And on top of that, he's had his entire life taken from him by Monokuma, of course he'd have reason to be suspicious!_

"Gah!"

"H-" He stepped back suddenly, possibly not expecting me to spin around, and lost his footing slightly, having stepped on the edge of the boardwalk.

"Sorry!" I exclaimed, grabbing his hand to allow him to steady himself before backing up a little bit myself.

"No, don't apologize, it is I who is at fault for startling you. I didn't realize that I was so close. I'm sorry." he reassured, bowing slightly.

"Uh..."

"..."

"..."

"..." We stood for several seconds, staring at each other and fidgeting and searching for words in silence. His gaze was focused into my eyes, and it was then that I remembered just how intense his gaze was in general, when he wasn't even angry. The kind of gaze that felt like it could penetrate your soul, and was analyzing every single thing about it, a gaze that could see into all of your deepest secrets...But unlike the blank gaze he gave me when he first met, his eyes were full of...anxiety. He was just as nervous as I was.

"Thanks." I finally blurted, grabbing his hand. He recoiled at the touch.

"..."

"..."

"For what?" he asked, glancing back down at his feet to ensure he didn't accidentally step off the boardwalk again.

"..."

"..."

"For telling me this was the boy's side."

"..." More silence. He hugged himself, clutching his shoulder.

"..."

"...Oh."

"..."

"..."

"...Well, good night!" I tried, waving slightly. My eyes traveled over the portraits on the mailbox. The cabins really did seem to belong to all boys, given the portraits. They were pixelated, like in an old video game but still maintained the likeness of the person they represented.

"..."

"..."

"...Good night." Korekiyo turned around and walked into the cabin with his portrait. It even had his mask on it. _Well, it figures that since he wears it so much it would be easier to identify him with the mask than without._ I waved to him again before I turned and walked to the other end of the boardwalk in the cabin area, and looked over the portraits on the girl's side. One of the portraits was...scratched out? I thought back to what Usami said earlier that day, about the missing student... _I wonder what happened to her..._ I turned back, a bad feeling in my chest, and walked back towards the center of the cabin area, because the one with my portrait was closest to the center of the cabin area, on the exit side. Across from mine was Chiaki's. I took a deep breath and pushed open the door to find a nicely-decorated cabin, with music notes and even a piano.

 _How...How much does Monokuma know about us...?_ I walked over to the upright piano against the wall across from the bed and ran my fingers over the keys. _Ivory...This must be an old_ _piano..._ There was a shelf beside it, full of sheet music. I pulled one out at random. _Étude Op. 10 No. 12...'Revolutionary'...Not exactly a fitting piece for our situation, but it is somewhat scary...Just like our situation...A minor-key_ _situation..._ I pulled out my e-handbook and looked over new the rules once more. _I still can't believe this...It's just like the plot of some video game..._

> **Rule 5:** Once a murder takes place, a class trial will begin shortly thereafter. Participation is mandatory for all surviving students.
> 
> **Rule 6:** If the blackened is exposed during the class trial, they alone will be executed.
> 
> **Rule 7:** If the blackened is not exposed, the remaining students will be executed.
> 
> **Rule 8:** As a reward, the surviving blackened will be forgiven of their crime and allowed to leave the island.
> 
> **Rule 9:** The Body Discovery Announcement will play as soon as three or more people discover a body for the first time.
> 
> **Rule 10:** Destroying any property on this island without permission is expressly prohibited. This includes the surveillance cameras and monitors.
> 
> **Rule 11:** You are free to investigate this island at your own discretion. Your actions in this regard are not limited.
> 
> **LAST RULE:** Additional school trip rules may be added at the headmaster's discretion.

_But these rules...Don't they conflict with the 'extreme violence' rule? I...shouldn't think about this too much. None of this makes any sense._ I sighed and changed out of the school swimsuit I wore, and went to sleep.

_I'll think about this more tomorrow morning, with the others..._


	9. Chapter I | Rising Action | Daily Life II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaede awakens before the morning announcement and notices some injuries that she swears that she did not get the night before...She heads to breakfast, and notices that several others have the same problem.

> **4̢͙̥̲̭̦̻͓̰̜̮̺ͧ̽ͤ͑ͤ̆ͭ̓́̉ͤ͑̏͑̅ͮ͢͜Dͧ̓̆͐ͮ̓ͣ̏҉̣̤͔͎͉̹͍̘ͅ ̶̢͇͙͎͔̗̻̳̠̦̮͔̭̮̤̌͛̀ͫͪ͑ͤ̒ͤ̾̾͘7̴̷̨̮̞̗̮ͦͬ͂̂́̈́̂ͪ͛̓̔͗ͯ̉͛Ą̸̾̃̐ͭ͒̐̽͊͑͜͏͇͙̰̪ ̴͈̩̙̎͒ͬ̈́̔̚͡͠6̷̷̜̥̙͙̘̫̤̮̬̲̱̝ͯ͒̿̃̂̑͗̃̌3̵͉̣͖͖͇̼̮͋̾̾̈́̾̓͆͛͠ ̷̧̡̺̬̟̝̳͕̞̗̖̬̺̠̬̜̳̲̋̅̇̈̚6̹̦̳̳̈͊͑ͦ͒̔ͩ̓ͨ͆̉̏͟7̄̇ͨ̓̏̊̉̉̌̑̍͛͐̋͏̡̡͙͙̮̭͍̖̮̠̝̬̼̺͢ ̶͎͎̤̞̭͓͉͓̳̠̪̞̑̃ͣ̀̂ͥ͟4̵̡̻͙̞̪̯̣̬̥̝̼̩̔̂͆̓̽̍ͧ̎̍ͭ̌͌ͣ͘͡D̛̺͚͎̣̰̖̜͍̣͑ͦͮ̚ ̙̯̮̱̹͉̻͎̠͎͚̯̳̜͖̟̓̏̅̽͑̄͂͑̿̑͋ͣ͂̔͛́͠͠7̢̦̩͓̥̱͍̜̮̦̰͖̤͇͉̹̊̅ͥ̔̒̄ͨ̓̈̊ͪ͢Aͩ̆̿ͤͪ̒̔͐͗̈̂͛̑͏̦͚̦̰͈̟͖̱͚̯̼ͅͅ ̞͖̭͙̹̩͔̭̠͉ͣ͛͌̐̽͂͌ͯ̌̂͐̿̎̔̎̚͡4̙̜̥͈̮̃̾ͮͦ͘D̛̪̲͕̜͎͍̘̠͙̪͚̝͍̖̻̹͓ͩ̔͌͌̄̌͒ͬ̍̃ͦ̋ͩ͢͢͞ͅ ̛͚̮̟͙͔̙̳͚͌ͥ̑̽ͣ͠6̧̦̥̙͍̤̪̪͍̟̻͍̦̥̎ͮ̿͊ͪͤ͛̋̔ͮͬ̎̔̒́̓ͣ̚7̵̛ͬͨ̑̋͌̽̐̅́̽̉͊͏͏̟̻̞̣͍̗̠̪̪͉͚͉͖ͅ ̨̹̪̹͇̬̏ͭ̓̑͒͐ͧ̉͒̌͗́ͣ͋ͬ̇̕͟4̓̍̎͏̶̧̘͍̬̗͍̝̼̰͖̰̠D̞̺͕̳̟̯̗̼͚̠̣͖̦͎ͮ̈́̇̕͟͝ ̢͈͈̩̫͚̻͕͚͎̝͔̙̣̏̆͊ͣ͒̚ͅ7̪̝̹̯̹̲̭͍̲͇̙̫̯̗̍̆̄ͤ̅ͨ͐ͬ̎͋̌͒̆̀̓ͨ̚̕͟ͅÄ̢̮̯̻̜͉͈̤̻̩̤́̉̿̄ͤͦͨ͊̏̒ͦͫ̚̚͘͠͠ ̸̣̤̫̝͇͔͇͐͋ͩͅ4̵̰̦̗̥̖̥̫̞̘͉͍̮͔̹̳͚̒̓ͭ̒ͬ͗̓̇̍̀̅̽̀͝1̸̙̻͔̗͉͍̺͎͎̲̺̗̲̱͓͍͇̄͂ͫ͂ͦ͑ ͎͍͚͎̖̟̟͔̺̲̺̰͕͔͓͐̊͛̒͊͛̈̒̓̊̍̽̚̚̕6̤̮̰̼̻͓͍̤͚͕̟̊̽̍͐̎͘7̡̖̱̺̠͖͔͙̦͓̗̰͔̦̝̙̑̑̃̈ͭ̊̐ͬ͆̓̀̑ͧ͑͘͡ͅ ̡̢̭͈̺̮̟͍͔̦̗̞̻̊͆͌̿ͤͬ̃ͧ̽̋̾̈́͜4̸̨̤͍̹͉̣͉̱̻̝̤̉̐̂̽ͫ̍̃͗͋͆̚̚͘͡D͕̘͓̼̙͕̝̰̻͙͓ͪ͒ͪ̑͊͊͗ͫ̌͝͠ͅ ̧̭̖̮̼͓̟̮ͮͩͩ͋ͅ7̧̮̘͖͕̅̓ͣͦ̆ͪͩͧ͑ͪ͑Ảͪ̃͑̔ͭ͒͋̎͂ͭͥ̽͞҉̧͏̯̣̮͔͍͖̗̥͚͕̹̣̳͎̪̮͈̘ ̧̢̛͍̦͔̰̳̤͈̯̝̮ͨ͛ͭ͟4͕̜̝̳̼̟̓̑ͯ͛ͭ̓ͥ͢͟5̨̗͇̗̘͚̟̣͙̻ͯ̈̀ͦ̀͋̕ ̴̵͐̃ͬ̂ͨ́̓͂̂̆̔ͮ̋̈́̋́ͣͬ͏̴͇͚͕̳̥̭͔̘ͅ6̶̴ͪ̾̏ͨ̈̽͑̊͑ͫ̓͒ͯ̚҉̟̝̖7̷͎̥̖̻̒ͪ̽̈́́͌̇̿ͨ̿ͨͬ̒̏̎ͨ̈̌͘ ̘̳̲̦͍̘̖̝̳̋͑͋̒ͮ͆̐ͨ̒̓̂̾̋̓͐̀̒̚͝͞͞4̴̞̰̤̎͌̈́͐ͥ̌͗ͭͧͫ̓̉̓́̄ͣ̅D̸̛̋̈́̌͏̜̪͉̮͢ ͍̱̱̰̙͕̣̂ͤ̌̍͂̾̐͂̀̇ͪ͂̿͑ͯ̍̓͞7̢͔̣̤͈̦͎͓̜͇̫̲̬͈͓̼͙̌ͪͦ̌ͯ͗͋̀ͮͫ̎͊̾̉͊̐̐͟͜͡ͅͅA̢̨̺͓̦̝̞̪͚͒̓̎̿̉ͤ͊͆ͦ̂̒̐͂̒͋͂̏ ̷̯͍̞̹̝̑̿ͣ̉̔̐̏̈́͟͠ͅ4̷̰̻͇̳̬͇̝͍ͧͮ̎ͣ̌͂̍ͣ̄̎͆̓5̰̲̠̘̙̤̙̞̝̮̗̻͍̤͓̯͂̾̄͗͡ ̹̠̗̪̽̇̈̾͌̾͑̈̒̓̍̚͡ͅ3̺̱̰͇͕̖̞̯̠̗͎̳̞͖̗͌̌͋̈́́ͮ̇̈̇̊ͬ̿ͬ̓̇̚͟D̮͓̜̫̫͍͎̖̭͐ͯ̋̔͘ͅ Theater**
> 
> _Man, it can be hard to talk to girls sometimes._
> 
> _I mean, no matter what you do, you really can't control what she does. And that's how it should be, you know?_
> 
> _But man, it can be difficult sometimes, 'cause you really can't guess another person's actions based on what you would do, you know?_
> 
> _Like this one time, this really pretty girl d3JvdGUgbWUgYSBub3RlIGFza2luZyBtZSB0bw== meet up with her about YSBzaGFyZWQgaW50ZXJlc3Q=. And obviously, I accepted, 'cause that's what you do when MEQHA4TFOR2HSIDHNFZGYIDZN52SA3DJNNSSAYLTNNZSA6LPOUQG65LUEE======_
> 
> _But then, it turned out she was trying to 01101011 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100001_
> 
> _I mean, I 64 65 66 65 6E 64 65 64 20 6D 79 73 65 6C 66 20 61 6E 64 20 64 69 73 61 72 6D 65 64 20 68 65 72 2C 20 61 6E 64 20 69 74 20 73 65emed like she'd backed off for a little bit, so I tried to talk some sense into her, you know, to calm her down?_
> 
> _I mean, it was a really stressful time, so NBSXEIDNOVZGIZLSEBQXI5DFNVYHI=== was understandable._
> 
> _So I tried to ORQWY2ZAONXW2ZJAONSW443FEBUW45DPEBUGK4Q=, just wanted to talk to her...And then 115 104 101 32 97 116 116 97 99 107 101 100 32 109 101 32 97 103 97 105 110 33_
> 
> _And then...I don't really know what happened next, but...in the end, she was...dead...and I just...didn't know what to do..._
> 
> _I just wanted to talk to her, I swear! I didn't mean to!_
> 
> _But...bm9ib2R5IGVsc2UgcmVhbGx5IHVuZGVyc3Rvb2QgdGhhdCwgJ2NhdXNlIEkgbmV2ZXIgcmVhbGx5IGdvdCB0aGUgY2hhbmNlIHRvIHRlbGwgdGhlbSBiZWZvcmUgYSBtYW5pYWNhbA== teddy bear 73 74 61 72 74 65 64 bGF1bmNoaW5nIGh1bmRyZWRzIGFuZA== 01101000 01110101 01101110 01100100 01110010 01100101 01100100 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01100010 01100001 01110011 01100101 01100010 01100001 01101100 01101100 01110011 YXQgbWUgdW50aWw= I blacked out! I don't even NRUWWZJAMJQXGZLCMFWGYII=_
> 
> _It sounds like some kinda messed up dream, doesn't it?_
> 
> _So that's why you shouldn't base your entire life on impressing girls. Because 73 68 65 20 6D 69 67 68 74 20 74 72 79 20 74 6F 20 6B 69 6C 6C 20 79 6F 75 20 61 6E 64 20 79 6F 75 27 6C 6C 20_
> 
> _[エラー 5: (0x5)]_
> 
> _[エラー 32: (0x20)]_
> 
> _[エラー 23: (0x17)]_
> 
> _[エラー 12: (0xC)]_
> 
> _[エラー 13: (0xD)]_
> 
> _[エラー 33: (0x21)]_

* * *

I hadn't even realized that I had fallen asleep when the morning came, and I lay in my bed, surprised at the passage of time; I felt as though I had pulled an all-nighter, not remembering falling asleep, but also not remembering when the sun came up. A number of mysterious aches and pains plagued my body, sharper and in more places than ordinary aches from having slept weird as I sat up in bed, and I did not feel at all rested, nor was my mind any more at ease than it was the previous night. But I did not feel tired, either, and knew I wasn't going to get any more sleep, so I figured that I might as well start getting ready to face another day, and the possibility that there will be fewer of us today, the possibility of another class trial...I shook my head and stepped out of bed, trying to ignore the stabbing pains all over my body as I walked over to the bathroom and started brushing my teeth and hair. Looking in the mirror as I brushed my teeth, I saw it. The mottled, red and purple stripe of bruising and scraped skin around the front of my neck, as though I had been yanked around by a metal collar. I looked down, and noticed that my whole body, too, was covered in similar, angry red and horrid purple bruises around giant, ugly, red-brown scabs. My eyes were bloodshot, the bruising had spread onto my face, and I felt a rough, painful sensation in my throat. A small amount of dried blood peeked from my nose. These...Weren't here yesterday...I shook my head and continued brushing. When I spit out my toothpaste, the monitor in the bedroom suddenly turned on, showing Monokuma sitting in a chair and drinking champagne. _So early? You shouldn't be drinking in the day, that's alcoholism!_ Well...I briefly glanced at the camera in my bedroom. _Clearly, whoever organized this had a lot of problems, putting cameras in people's bedrooms...Why is this weirdo so lucky, being able to see girls changing?!_

> "Ahem...Hope's Peak Academy's School Trip Executive Committee has an announcement to make...
> 
> Gooooood morning, everyone! Looks like today is gonna be another perfect, tropical day!
> 
> Now then, let's show some enthusiasm and make sure to give it our all today!"

The monitor clicked off, and I washed my face, washing away the dried blood and trying my best to reduce the horrid bruising with cold water. My eyes flitted to the digital clock on the nightstand. 8:00 am. _It's such a nice place, way nicer than my own house...Why did it have to be like this? No, think positive! I'm gonna ask my parents if I can have a 4-poster canopy bed like this when I get home!_ Encouraging myself, I put on my backpack and stepped out of my cottage, looking around in the daylight.

"K-Kaede! What happened?!" I spun around and saw Makoto, completely and utterly unharmed. His eyes were wide like platters, his mouth open with horror; there were just some things I couldn't really fix by just washing my face. "You look like you got mauled by a bear!" I searched my mind for a moment, wondering what had happened, and besides a splitting headache, all I got was a big goose egg.

"I don't know. I just woke up like this. It's weird, isn't it?" I replied, holding my head. _I must look horrible...And now I have a headache, like my head's going to explode..._ At least the smell of iron had disappeared after I washed my face.

"I wonder if Monokuma had something to do with it..."

"Well, then it wouldn't be inaccurate to say that I got mauled by a bear, then." I joked, smiling at him tentatively. My little joke seemed to have worked, because Makoto chuckled slightly before forcing himself to stop.

"Noooooo! That's terrible!" he exclaimed with a smile. I giggled at him in response.

"Well, we should probably go get breakfast soon so we don't have to try to escape on empty stomachs." I suggested, gesturing to the restaurant.

"That's a good plan." He turned and started making his way to the restaurant. "Well, last one there's a rotten egg!" he called, waving as he ran. I followed after.

"Hey, wait up!" I giggled, chasing after him. But I could only keep his pace for a few moments before my legs seemed to turn into jelly, and sharp pain speared my entire body. "Ugh..." I stumbled forward, trying my best not to trip and fall into the pool.

"Kaede...? Are you okay?! What happened?!" a meek voice piped from behind me. "Ah! I'm sorry! I should have asked if I could ask if you were okay!" I wobbled around and turned to face the purple-haired nurse. I noticed her mottled finger-tips, and that the tips of her ears, nose, and cheeks were quite pink while her lips seemed to be slightly bluish.

"Hey, it's okay, you're a sexy nurse! It's totally okay to ask me if I'm okay! And, I have no idea what happened to me, but I think I'm okay...Also, what happened to you?" I sputtered, trying to reassure the timid girl.

"Ah! I'm sorry for making you concerned about me without permission!" she squeaked, folding in on herself.

"You don't need permission for that, honest! Especially not a cute girl like you!"

"C...cute? I'm...Cute?" she stuttered, looking down.

"Yeah! You're adorable!" I affirmed, pumping my fists.

"D...Do I have permission to...tell you if I'm okay?"

"Well, that's why I asked!"

"O...Okay...Well...I-I don't know wh-what happened, but I w-woke up really cold, and I-I...I had frostbite, s-somehow..." she muttered. "Ah! I'm sorry for making you worried about me!" She looked up at my face and flinched. I didn't even notice that my face had contorted with worry until she'd pointed it outー

...

I fixed my facial expression. "No, it's okay! It's okay for people to worry about you if you're hurt!"

"O-okay...Is it...okay...if I ask you...to go to breakfast with me...?"

"Of course! I was heading that way anyway!" I replied, confident that I would not end up the rotten egg. The two of us walked past the pool and entered the restaurant, where only a few other people were.

"What the hell happened to everyone last night?" Kaito asked, flinching the moment he laid eyes on me. “You look like you got **mauled by a bear**!”

“Perhaps Monokuma got frustrated when we all did not immediately begin murdering each other in some barbaric fashion when the killing game was announced, and attempted to kill us himself as we slept?” Celeste suggested, leaning in with her fist on her chin. Despite the fact so much of her body was covered by her clothing, what little skin peeked out from beneath her skirt and from her sleeves appeared to be blistered, peeling, and bruised. Her face was a little better, but it looked like she tried to cover it up with make-up. _I should probably get some make-up from the store later…_

“I would personally not put it past him to do such a thing—” Sakura started.

“I would never!” Monokuma suddenly popped up and interrupted, looking way angrier than a teddy bear should be allowed to, even if it really is a highly-advanced robot. He sounded scandalized at the very idea. “There’s no way I did that while you were sleeping! That was there before you got here, you all just forgot I did that already!”

“Then why did all these wounds suddenly just _appear_ this morning?!” Makoto accused, pointing at him. “There’s no way we already had those!”

“Upupu...Your **lost memories** are a powerful thing, young padawan!”

“But...That doesn’t make any sense!” Kaito shouted. “If it’s your **physical body** , you can still have injuries, even if you don’t remember how you got them!”

“Perhaps these wounds are merely **psychosomatic** ? It is rather strange...Perhaps this Monokuma’s power lies not in what he can do to our bodies, but rather, what he is able to do with our minds…” Celeste comments.

“Ding ding ding! This girl is one smart cookie! Yes...I can cause you all as much **despair** as I want to you! But I can’t do anything to your body unless **you break a rule**!”

“But is murder, and any other extreme violence, for that matter, not **against the rules** ?” she interrogates, leaning in closer to Monokuma. “Yet you are encouraging us to break that rule in order to **leave the island,** which is also against the rules. These rules...They contradict themselves.”

“Hey! Don’t bully your headmaster over **smelly Usami’s** rules! I didn’t put those there, she and her **hope** have nothing to do with me!”

“But surely, if you were truly held as much power over us as you claim to, you would have been able to remove those rules, then?”

“Grrrrr…” The bear seemed enraged at her questioning, baring his claws and teeth at us and shooting her an especially-harsh glare.

“I-I...I’m sorry for questioning you! But...I-Is it really a good i-idea t-to make the p-person who k-k-kidnapped us s-so angry…?” Mikan squeaked.

“Yes...What if he were to...Ah, forget it. I mustn’t give him any ideas.” Korekiyo asked, popping up directly behind Celeste. Anyone else who had just had someone as creepy as him just materialize directly behind them and whisper into their ears would have screamed and punched him in the face. But not Celeste, who merely smiled.

“So, Monokuma? What shall you do?”

“Grrr…Don’t question me!” Monokuma finally growled, throwing his arms in the air and slinking away, muttering something about “Ungrateful kids these days” and “I’ll show them my power! I’ll show them all!” When the confrontation was over with, I noticed that everyone else had appeared, as well as the smell of...fried, sweetened meat…? I looked up at Teruteru and realized what exactly that smell was...The smell of fried human flesh...I swallowed the small amount of stomach acid that bubbled into my throat at that thought.

“So...Serious question, but...Did anyone else experience some difficulty changing their clothing this morning?” he asked, his hand on his chin. “I tried asking that rabbit about it, but she just asked me what happened to me! And when I realized that I didn’t know, well...I was able to remove them just fine. How strange…Nothing is wrong, probably just was still wet from last night...This is sand...Nothing is happening...What bear? Ha ha…”

“Your attempts to deny the undeniable...Such foolish human arrogance!” Gundham declared, looking down into his scarf.

We all tried not to look too hard at each other as we ate our breakfast and attempted to cling to some semblance of normality in our entirely abnormal situation. A situation where we could wake up with blood trickling from our mouths, with hypothermia on a supposedly-peaceful tropical island vacation...It was quite difficult to keep my eyes away from Mondo’s gaunt features, the blood that occasionally dripped from Gundham’s mouth, the way Kirumi sat and ate so gingerly, as though every movement caused her stabbing pain...Thinking about the possibility that every meal could be our last, the possibility that the food could be poisoned...The thoughts made it really hard to eat, even without considering how painful it was for me to swallow, as though my throat had been crushed.

_I want to get out of here go home, so I can smile with everyone else..._ No music came to my mind as I ate the food provided for us.


	10. Chapter I | Rising Action | Daily Life III | Free Time I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After some breakfast chatter and heckling by Monokuma, Kaede decides to investigate with Peko.

"I was gonna ask everyone else if they had these weird injuries, but I guess that's kinda obvious, huh?" Leon comments, breaking me out of my thoughts in his attempt to break the tension. Symphony Number 5, the whole thing feels like.

"Yeah, it's weird. But I feel a little better after eating." Kaito replied, chuckling with some uncertainty. "Like my lungs aren't on fire anymore."

"Uh..." I hesitated, trying to add to the tense conversation. "Wouldn't that mean you feel a lot better now?" My hand drifted to my neck, and sure enough, the stripe was...Gone. The bruising on my legs had also disappeared. I tried one more time to think of what on earth Monokuma could have been talking about, but...It was like my head had been emptied, my reaches into my memories were banging against the inside of my skull, the reverberations giving me a headache.

"Good Morning!" sang the sickly-sweet, still-unfamiliar voice of our ex-teacher. "How did my beloved students sleep?" Peko threw a hard stare where the girlish rabbit appeared, and I felt the same contempt for her. _If she's able to just appear out of nowhere like that, then how was Monokuma able to start this killing game with her in charge if she's not with him? She's clearly not completely_ _useless..._ I turn away from her and sigh.

"Ha-wa-wa...No one is speaking to me, everyone must be really mad at me...I understand why, because I failed all of you by not beating him..." In an instant, her cheerfulness crumpled and the stuffed animal took on a new demeanour, a far more...timid one. But then she took up a more confident stance again. "But don't worry! Even though I'm **technically not your teacher** anymore, it's still my duty to protect all of you, protect **everyone**! I'll make sure of it! I won't fail you guys like...Ha-wa-wa..." And before anyone even had a chance to speak, she disappeared, leaving us in that shocked silence that we had been in when she first just...Appeared.

Kirumi, who had been standing by the table but never sitting down the entire time, cleared her throat. "Well then. It would seem now that the best course of action would be to figure out a way in which we could escape, and ideally defeat Monokuma, and by extension, whoever captured us, in the process. Of course, this is but a suggestion." She seemed irritated about something, slightly unnerved. Teruteru, also, seemed somewhat offended.

"What's wrong? Are you guys worried that you messed up the food or something, 'cuz I didn't notice anything. The food's fine." Mondo tested, also seeming to notice how tense their behavior was.

"Quite the contrary, actually; We did not get to prepare your meal or the tables this morning—When I had arrived here at around **4:00** this morning, everything had already been set up." Kirumi explained, her voice as calm and even as ever; her diligence was kind of sexy.

"Yeah...It's really strange...Doesn't Hope's Peak Academy want us to be developing our talents? My talent is cooking, so I should be the one cooking, and Kirumi should be able to do her maid duties! And since this was supposedly some kind of luxury trip...Wouldn't it be best to treat everyone to food suited to a World-Class Restaurant from a World-Class chef, and World-Class services from a World-Class services from a World-Class maid?" Teruteru added, clenching his fists and seeming almost...Offended. "In comparison, this food is just shitty! Treating people to such shitty food on a luxury vacation...That's just not allowed! And, there is just no maid services here whatsoever besides Kirumi! Though, they would also likely be shitty compared to hers, though I've never personally, ehe, _experienced_ any of them..."

"If you truly are World-Class, then why are you so...so...so _vulgar_? You'd think someone like you'd have at least enough class to not harass servants, yeah?" Korekiyo warned, swooping in behind the tiny chef, you know, as you do, and prompting a tiny squeak. "Also...We're being forced to kill each other, yeah? So our comfort is clearly not on their minds."

"Huh? Being forced to kill each other? What?" Teruteru's hunched over and looked side to side, trying to deny the reality. "That's not real, you're just delusional...Yeah...It's you, not me! It has nothing to do with me, because it's not real...!" The amnesiac stepped back and huffed in response, crossing his arms and shaking his head.

"Suit yourself."

"Well, I wouldn't say that there is no service, since there is Kirumi..." Celeste began.

"Yeah, but isn't she one of us, supposed to go to Hope's Peak Academy but was brought here instead?" Chiaki interjected. "She also said she got accepted."

"How do we know she is telling the truth, and is not simply with them? In fact, how can we know that Teruteru is not also with whoever kidnapped us and is forcing us to play this game, that they are not simply pretending to be one of us so that they can spy?"

"That's gotta be the dumbest thing I've ever heard." Kaito rebuked, putting his hand behind his head. "I mean, c'mon. Literally the only reason you're suspecting them is their talents because they're usually things people get hired for as hotel employees. That's not a reason to suspect them any more than we can suspect the amnesiac over there. And I choose to believe in all of them!"

"Yeah, we can't be suspecting each other willy-nilly like this!" I finally spoke up, my mouth and throat and tongue finally working together to form the words to speak. "We can't afford to! That's what whoever's making us play this game wants, and if we all start suspecting each other, that's how the game's gonna start!"

"I see. Well, I suppose that that is your choice. But our desire to leave...It may drive the killings, I must warn you." Celeste replied, her expression neutral as she glances off to the side. Kirumi took up the empty plates and began taking them to the kitchen when they are swiftly taken from her by Usami, who then ran off into the kitchen with the stack of dishes, which appeared comically large compared to her small form. It's a wonder how the dishes didn't collapse and break with how fast she skittered off to the kitchen, insisting the entire time that she would do it, much to Kirumi's chagrin. The maid took a deep breath and sighed, shaking her head as the rabbit disappeared.

"I suppose...Perhaps she, too, has a vow to selfless devotion?" she pondered with a sigh. "I wonder if that was her purpose for being created..." _It seems like...She trusts her..._

"Like the Laws of Robotics, right?" Chiaki put in.

"Huh? Laws of Robotics? What's that?" I asked, turning to the gamer.

"From Isaac Asimov, yeah?" Everyone turned and stared at the amnesiac when he spoke.

"Hey! Didn't you say you forgot everything or something?" Mondo exploded, jabbing Korekiyo in the chest. "You're saying you lied? Or did you remember something?"

"It's strange...I have no memories, and know nothing beyond basic information about _myself_ , but I still know facts about the world..." He fiddled with his pendant, almost out of reflex; he showed little reaction to being violently jabbed in the chest. "I have just discovered that I really dislike being looked at that way, however..."

"Anyway, the Laws of Robotics are a concept created by Isaac Asimov, I think. There's a lot of different variations of them because they're a big part of scifi, but basically, there are three. The First Law states that 'A robot may not harm humans, or through inaction allow humans to come to harm.' The Second Law states that 'A robot must follow all orders given to it by a human, except for when such orders come into conflict with the First law. The Third states that 'A robot must protect its own existence, so long as this protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.'" Chiaki continued, holding up one finger. "...I think. I know this from a scifi game."

"I don't know how applicable those are in this situation, though." I blurted, prompting a general murmur of assent throughout the room. "I mean...Clearly, Monokuma, at least, wasn't made with that in mind..."

"However, it is unclear whether or not Usami and Monokuma were created by the same person...It is possible that they were not created with the same objective in mind." Sakura considered.

"No matter! The creators of such things as Usami and Monokuma, both, deserve to die a thousand deaths for insulting the honor of the great demon beasts, for anything that speaks cannot be trusted!" Gundham declared, gesturing with his bandaged arm as emphasis.

"Ah, but Gonta thinks Usami is nice!" Gonta chimed in. "Usami helped Gonta get the splinters and...insect stingers...out of his skin!" His tone saddened when he mentioned the stingers, probably because insects die if their stingers are torn out, and Gonta _is_ an entomologist.

"Hmm...The god's colossus brings a truth which cannot be denied, however...The fact still remains that one cannot place their faith in such aberrations of the natural order!" Our ordinary chatter continued as such as we all gradually dispersed from the restaurant. Once there was only Makoto, Korekiyo, Chiaki, and me remaining, a certain less-than-welcome anthropomorphic teddy bear made himself known to us again.

"What do you want?!" Makoto demanded, glaring harshly at the bear.

"Gee...So unfriendly to your headmaster...Well, I guess that's to be expected until you all accept the **reality of this world**..." Monokuma whined, turning away from us.

"Seriously, what do you want?" I echoed.

"Upupu...I just want to engage in some casual banter, of course! Shame I got here too late, though..."

"So you're here to heckle us?" Korekiyo accused flatly.

"Well...I just wanted to see how you all were doing, but...If you wanna call it that, then I can't stop you! Anyway, Korekiyo, how'd getting ready this morning go?"

"So you _are_ here to heckle us." the amnesiac sighed, pulling down the brim of his hat ominously. "There's a camera in my room, yeah? You already know the answer."

"How rude...I was just asking! But anyway, you'd think you'd have been more sympathetic to Teruteru, given that you both had a pretty similar... **predicament** , you know?" The bear prattled on, chuckling at him before slipping away.

"...Eh...?" Korekiyo seemed slightly annoyed, but shook his head and sighed. "That cursed thing seems to have a bit of a bone to pick with me, eh."

"Yeah..." Makoto shook his head. "He heckled me, too. Appeared right in my room and started rambling about **protagonists** or something."

"That's weird. This isn't a video game or anything..." I responded. "Jeez...Y'know, whoever's running this whole thing is probably really weird, sticking cameras in the rooms. It even faces the shower room."

"Well, the cameras were already there when Usami was running the show, I think." Chiaki considered. "Though, I don't think she's a weirdo or anything. They were originally just to keep us safe...I think."

"Yeah, but now that they've been repurposed...Can we even say it's Hope's Peak Academy, running Monokuma?" Makoto questioned. "Or is he just saying that in his morning announcements to mock us?"

"This is a lot to try to think about at once..." I muttered. "But...Why are we here? He said something about 'stealing' our memories, too...And Usami said that Hope's Peak put us here to...Heal? It's all just so confusing."

"Kukuku...S'pose it can't be helped..."

"Maybe...We can try to think about it with the others." Chiaki suggested, gesturing with her finger. It's pretty cute. "They'll probably have something else to say...I think."

"Yeah...In the meantime, I guess we should just try to...investigate this place, I guess. And then reconvene later." Makoto added. "We might know more about what to do by then. And it's a nice place, probably won't be too bad investigating, right?"

"That sounds like a good idea." I agreed. And on that note, we all dispersed, all of us thinking about what to do.

I returned to my cabin and flopped back onto the bed with a sigh. _I need to do something...But what to do? Maybe I'll just investigate, like Makoto suggested. But...I'm not sure..._

** Free Time Start! **

_Hmm...What do I_ _do..._ I opened up the student handbook and flipped through people, thinking about who to hang out with. _Teruteru...No...Kirumi...I'd probably just get in the way of her investigation...Peko...She scares me a little bit...But...You know what? I'm gonna hang with Peko, maybe get to know her a little bit. After all if we're all friends, that'll totally thwart Monokuma's plans!_ I stood up and triumphantly threw my e-handbook back into my backpack, having decided where to go—Peko's at the park on the Central Island. _Maybe I could help her investigate, too._

I ran through the beach and found myself stopping at the beach we all met at...Close to the building I woke up in. I saw a palm tree with a machine attached to it... _Monomono...Yachine...?_ I stepped towards it. _Looks like a gachapon_ _machine..._ I dug around in my backpack for some coins and surprisingly, I found some. _Nice!_ I pulled them out and started putting them into the machine. _The slot...It's like it could eat all the coins I have, if I wanted to put them all in...But...Why?_ I put one in and turned the knob. Out came a small capsule. I opened it up and out came...a book? I opened it up. _Secret Wind Sword Book...That's really convenient! I could give this to Peko!_ I put in another coin, and got a rusty dagger. Then I got...a ball-gag. That's weird. Okay. I stopped trying at the machine, stuffed the rusty knife and the...ball-gag...into my backpack, and left. _I should probably get going._ I continued and crossed the bridge to Central Island.

Once I got there, I walked around the park until I saw Peko, looking around, likely investigating.

"Hey, Peko!" I greeted, running over to the silver-haired girl. I tried not to focus on her intimidating aura as I ran over. _She's a sexy swordswoman! That's super intimidating!_ "Can I help you investigate?" The girl looked at me, her gaze sending a chill down my spine. _Wow...I'm...So close...She's really...Pretty...And scary..._

"...Sure."

We searched until almost lunchtime, when I remembered that I was carrying something for her.

"Oh, I almost forgot! Hey, Peko?"

"Yes?" Her response was curt, short, to-the-point. A dutiful girl. _Yes, she'll like this._ I pulled out the sword book and held it out to her.

"Here, have this. I got it from that gachapon machine and thought you'd like it, so I wanted to give it to you!" The girl stared at me with wide eyes, then down to the book, then back at me, before tentatively reaching out her hands and taking it, examining it carefully.

"Wh-what?! Is it really acceptable for me to recieve this? Kaede...you...I will never forget this favor for the rest of my life." She bowed deeply; I got the impression that she really liked it. _I'm already seeing a new side to her...! She's actually really sweet!_

"Haha, yeah! I'm glad you liked it!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..." We stood in silence for several seconds, both of us unsure of what to say.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Hey, do you like...Kendo?" I tested, trying to start a conversation with the girl. _She is really...kind of intimidating._

"Yes."

"..."

"..."

"...Can you...Tell me more about that?" What got you into kendo?" I tried again, trying to keep the tentative conversation alive. _She's not really one for conversation, huh..._

"It is my purpose in life; my one reason for existing." _Wow, she must be really into it!_

"Wow...You must be really into it, then! Kind of like piano is for me...Is it something you've always kind of been into?"

"It is more...I suppose you could say that." She seemed a little like she didn't know what to say, as though she'd never been asked that question before. "As I have said, it is my purpose in life. I must protect who I need to protect, and cut who I need to cut. That alone is the original purpose of the sword. Weilding a blade in its truest form...That is my aim, my one purpose in life—No, rather, it is the aim, the purpose for which I have been created." _She's so intense! Wow...She's no mere athlete, she's a swordswoman on a whole other level...! It's really impressive!_

"Wow...That's...You're really passionate about that! Like...Wow...That's so cool!" I gushed, smiling at her. "And that sense of duty...It's kind of sexy, in a way." Peko seemed quite...Taken aback by my comment.

"...I've...Never had anyone say something like that about me." she admitted, a blush crossing her face. "But...You really shouldn't say such things."

"Huh?"

"The intentions behind those words, while almost certainly pure, could be taken to be something far more...Sinister."

"What do you mean?"

"...Nevermind. Anyway...Because of my path in life, I...There are some things that I simply cannot have. Something I have lost, so to speak...Something irreplaceable..."

"H-huh? What have you lost?"

"...Fluffiness."

"Huh?"

"There are things that are warm, fluffy, and soft...The cat that came to visit the dojo, my childhood friend's dog, and even the finch I had as a pet...But all animals can sense my menacing presence and run away from me. I just...want to touch their soft fur and fluffy feathers to my heart's content..." _Ah...That sucks...I thought she was gonna talk about something about her past or something, but...That's painful enough!_

"I see...That's actually really cute!"

"...Cute...?" She blushed again. "No one has ever really...Called me cute before..."

"Really? Because you are! You want to pet fluffy things, and that's super cute! And I want to help you!"

"You...Really don't have to, I understand that I have a menacing presence..."

"No, it's okay! Let's think of something! I want to help you!"

"Well, if you are offering, then...It would be rude to refuse." she considered.

"Hmm...Oh, I know! Maybe Gundham might let you pet his hamsters! I mean, they are called the Four Dark Devas of Destruction!" I suggested. "They might not get scared and run away!"

"You make a good point...I should look for Gundham right now..." In that moment, I felt her menacing aura. _She...Might freak them out like that! But...It is understandable..._ "Kaede, thank you for the advice. If you'd like...Please come talk to me again. Goodbye." And she ran off to go pet the hamsters. _Wow...I was scared of her at first, but...She's actually really cute! I never thought a girl like her would like animals so much, but...I really feel like I got to know her better._

After talking to Peko, I returned to my cabin for a little bit to put away my things before lunch.


	11. Chapter I | Rising Action | Daily Life IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaede heads to lunch. She just can't shake the feeling that something will go wrong, even through the mindless chatter...

I stepped into the restaurant for lunch to see Kirumi tying down Usami. "...Huh?"

"Teruteru has made a request of me that I am particularly inclined to oblige." she replied simply, wrapping the rope that bound the rabbit to the chair.

"Kyaaaa! Making you all lunch isn't the only duty your squeezably soft, delicate teacher has, you know! And since that Monokuma took over, I have to do them all manually and individually!" The rabbit struggled, her cotton-stuffed body being squished by the ropes.  _I wonder where Kirumi got that...Probably from the store..._

"I assure you," Kirumi reassured, tightening the rope even further. "That I would be able to handle them if you would simply tell me what they are." If Usami were a person, she would not have been able to breathe. But nothing made sense here.

"Kyaaaa! This is supposed to be your lovey-dovey, relaxing island vacation! I can't do that!" the rabbit cried, still uselessly struggling against her restraints.

"Well, I am a maid, after all. And besides, Monokuma's presence seems to ensure that such a thing would be impossible, anyway." she insisted, knotting the rope.

"Uguu...It's all that horrible, horrible Monokuma's fault that this is happening..." I shook my head at the incredulous scene before me. _It's a little hard to get used to this...Only in this situation. Some normalcy here would be refreshing..._

"...So I'm guessing lunch isn't quite ready?" I tested, quickly scanning the tables and the Usami-sized cart with a definitely not Usami-sized pile of dishes stacked upon it. It was a wonder how it didn't fall over, scattering shards of glass everywhere...The restaurant smelled strongly of delicious, mouth-watering food, food much better than what the Monomono Yachine had to offer, and I was hungry; the idea of waiting filled me with a burning frustration, a staccato antecedent phrase with a rapid crescendo.

"Not quite yet, I'm afraid. Please allow me to set the tables first—" Kirumi was interrupted by Usami producing a fair-sized branch with a strip of white cloth wrapped around it from nowhere and unravelling the ropes binding her to the chair.

"I may not have my magic wand, but I still have a stick!" the rabbit declared. She waved the stick and pointed it at the dishes and utensils on the cart, which started whirling around and setting themselves... _I won't question it..._ "See? I'm not completely useless!" She then dashed to the kitchen and slammed into Teruteru, nearly causing him to trip and spill the large plates of food he was carrying everywhere. "I told you, I still have things to do— Kyaaaaaa!!"

"...Are you trying to sabotage my world-class dishes so you can feed us that- that _swill_ again?!" he accused, setting the dish onto one of the tables.

"Kyaaaaa! I'm sorry!" Usami screamed, skittering backwards and falling onto her backside. "I...I'm just in a super big hurry! I was going to do it for you, but...If you've already made all the food, then...Ha-wa-wa..." She got back on her tiny feet and ran out of the restaurant, muttering about how "This is not good, this is very not good," stopping briefly to huff and puff before disappearing down the stairs.

"My, that was entertaining." I turned and saw Celeste, and everyone else, standing awkwardly near the entrance of the restaurant. "I'd ask for an encore, but something tells me that little farce was not intentional..." She giggled and smiled at me. I found her smile to be quite mysterious. A little mystery in a girl is pretty sexy.

"So, what does poison does the Depraved One bring us at the midday meal?" Gundham boomed, gesturing with his hamsters. "For if it does not suit the tastes of Gundham Tanaka, the Supreme Overlord of Ice, then you shall at once be eviscerated by the Four Dark Devas of Destruction!" Peko seemed to be smiling behind him; it looked like she was able to pet them. I felt happy, seeing everyone talking like this. The normality was...almost refreshing. Reassuring.

"I assure you, this is not the disgusting swill that Usami brought us this morning!" Teruteru exclaimed, brandishing a dish. "I spent all morning working on these magnificent dishes!"

"Kukuku...A bit heavy for lunch, ain't it?" Korekiyo chuckled, gesturing at the meal on the table. "A pot roast? This is like an embassy dinner...You wouldn't even think we're in a killing game...Say." His expression suddenly darkened. Not that he wasn't absolutely creepy before, but the boy somehow managed to get even creepier. "How do we know that you haven't poisoned this food?" Teruteru's face contorted into an ugly expression of indescribable rage, the same rage he had this morning when someone said Usami's cooking was tasty.

"How dare you insinuate that I would taint food like that?! You're- You're just terrible! You ate the swill this morning! Why would I even do that?!" he raged.

"Have you already forgotten our situation here? This is a killing game. We are stuck on this island unless we kill somebody."

"K-killing game?! What killing game...? I don't see any killing games here...You're just sick in the head...S-see a therapist..." The chef bent over, averting his gaze. He knew the truth, he was just denying it... _I guess everyone tries to deal with this in their own way..._

 "Do you really think that _anyone's_ gonna believ—"

"Hey, cut it out, the both of you!" I burst in, stepping between the two of them before the argument could continue and potentially escalate. "We can't just accuse each other of trying to kill each other willy nilly! We have to stick together here! Come on!" The dark, nagging thoughts returned...I tried to shove them away.

"Yeah." Chiaki spoke up. "If you think it's poisoned, then don't eat it." She pouted at him. "But I don't think anyone here would do that. The food looks really tasty."

 "Y-you know..." Mikan stuttered. "I-I-If it m-makes you f-feel any b-better, m-m-most p-poison has a strong b-bitter t-t-taste...Y-You'd p-probably know if it was p-poisoned b-before eating enough p-poison to kill you."

"Man, that killed the mood." Leon grumbled, scratching his head. "You can't just say things like that, it puts everyone on edge."

"...I was simply voicing a concern." Korekiyo muttered, taking a seat at the table.

"I understand your concern, but there are far more suitable times to voice them." Sakura chastised. I sighed and took a seat at the table nearest to me. _Jeez...And everyone was so cheerful,_ _too..._ I took some food onto my plate and started eating. The moment I put it in my mouth, I couldn't stop...I had to chase away a creeping suspicion as I ate.  _This food is too good for that!_

"So, how'd everyone's search go?" Mondo asked, fiercly tearing a piece of meat off a bone. "Kaito 'n I found jack shit t' get outta here."

"I'm afraid that Teruteru and I were occupied for much of the morning in the restaurant." Kirumi testified, standing at attention by the wall. "And, although I was not watching him particularly closely, I can say with some level of confidence that our food has not been drugged in any way; I stripped him of his suspicious-looking bottles before we started. She pulled out a small, black bottle that said _Special Ingredient_ on it.

 "H-hey! Don't show them my **_Special Ingredient_**! What...What if they steal it?!" Teruteru squealed, pulling at his hair.

"Thaf's disfufing." Kaito grunted, his mouth full of food. And yet, he shoveled more in. It made sense; the food  _was_ amazing.

"See, I told you there's nothing to be worried about!" Makoto reassured, patting Korekiyo on the shoulder. The lanky boy recoiled slightly at the touch. "I mean, Kirumi's pretty thorough, even if Teruteru _is_ a bit...Questionable. So there's at least someone you can trust here!"

"Why did Kirumi take Teruteru's Secret Ingredient?" Gonta asked, looking at his food. "Would it make Teruteru's food even better?" Sakura shook his head.

"It is unlikely to be something like that, Gonta. It is unlikely to be anything lethal, but from someone such as him, it can be nothing good." She shot a glare at the portly chef, who recoiled slightly, which seemed to confirm her suspicions.

"I'unno about you, but...If anything happened to you, Gonta, I'd kill everyone in this room and then myself." Leon joked, scratching his head.

"No, don't do that!" Gonta exclaimed, recoiling at the very idea. And with his form, this nearly broke the chair. "Gonta will make sure nothing happens to anyone!" _He's so pure...I wonder what the Ingredient could be, though._

"The Gods' Colossus speaks..." Gunham remarked. But he seemed to be smiling a little bit. We continued our lunchtime chatter, reporting the non-results of our investigations. The topic of someone actually playing the killing game was swept to the sidelines as we talked and joked about nonsense, like it was a normal day, and we were all just classmates on a school trip.

But I still couldn't get it out of my head...The feeling that something was going to go very, very wrong...It lingered and gnawed at my insides, even as I laughed along with everyone else. And I knew everyone else felt it too...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> salong.snfkwkkfjdf feels a bit rushed imo *shits out a chapter* *shits out a chapter* *shits out a chapter*


	12. Chapter I | Rising Action | Daily Life V | Free Time II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Monokuma announces the motive, a motive that shocks the group to its core. It's impossible, right...?

_Hmm...Who should I help next? Now that I've eaten...Maybe...Makoto?_ I slipped my e-handbook away and pulled out some of the prizes I'd obtained from the Monomono Yachine. I've always found myself a little bit addicted to gachapon machines (honestly, who hasn't?), and the coins seemed to be linked to hitting furniture around. And since I tend to stress clean, I needed something to clean up...I pulled out a bottle of Ramune. _I hope he likes this..._ I actually couldn't really tell what kind of things he liked, like the person he is just...slips through my brain, without leaving that much of an imprint... _That's a bad way to think about somebody. I'll just...Hope he likes this._ I tried not to wonder how they fit an entire t-shirt into the machine and walked over to the Old Building, where Makoto stood.

"Oh, hi, Kaede." he greeted, waving to me with a smile. "How are you?"

"I'm alright. How are you?" I replied, smiling back to him.

"I'm alright, been looking around here. But I haven't really found much yet. You want to help me look?"

"Totally! I mean, two heads are always better than one in this situation!"

The building was musty and the air slightly stale, which held an eerie sort of suspense, with its creaky, wooden floors, its dustiness, spiderwebs, and poor lighting, like the Third Movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony. We investigated until dinner time rolled around.

"Looks like there wasn't really much to find there." I sighed, shaking my head. "Oh well."

"And it looks like it's starting to get a little dark out." Makoto added. "It'll be too dark to investigate soon, and it's almost dinner..." It was at the mention of food that I remembered the bottle of Ramune I brought for him.

"Oh, hold on a minute. I almost forgot—" I swung the backpack in front of my body and pulled out the bottle of Ramune, which was, thankfully, not too shaken up. "I got this for you." I held it out to him. _Please take it..._ He reached out his arms to take the soda.

"Hey, thanks!" he thanked, smiling at me. "This is my favorite flavor!" _It's the normal flavor...I guess it makes sense for it to be his favorite, huh...That's a mean thought!_

"Hey, no problem!" I replied, smiling. "I think we have some time before dinner is ready, so why don't we hang out a little bit?"

"Alright. Oh, and that reminds me!" He pulled out a packet of sheet music. "You're a pianist, right?" Makoto handed me the music. _Clair de Lune._

"Oh my God…" I snatched it from his hands and started flipping through it. "Makoto, this is..." He clutched his sleeve, biting his lip nervously.

"I-I mean, if you don't like it, then—" I interrupted him then and there.

"Don't like it? No, I love it! This is my favorite piece! How did you know?" I gushed, closing it up and carefully sliding it into my backpack. "As soon as I get my hands on a piano, I'm playing this immediately!"

"Haha, I'm glad you like it." He smiled sheepishly, and I his breathing even out.

"So...I've been wanting to ask this for a while, but...What does the Ultimate Lucky Student mean? I've never heard of it. Of course, I don't really know much about Hope's Peak Academy in general, actually." I asked, looking at him. _Maybe I'll be able to figure him out more if I ask him about this!_

"Oh, my 'talent'?" he responded, fidgeting with his hoodie some more. "Well, it's not really an actual talent like yours, honestly. I just got pulled out of a lottery. I'm really more unlucky than anything, haha." He chuckled sheepishly, his hand behind his head.

"Unlucky? What do you mean?" I pressed. "I mean, it's pretty lucky to get into Hope's Peak Academy, right?"

"Well, on the day I got my acceptance letter, I was walking home from school and was trying to catch the music show that was going to be on TV that night, with Sayaka Maizono. I really had the feeling that something good was going to happen, so I took the long way home. I passed by a park and randomly ran into some of my friends, who were playing a game of rock-paper-scissors to decide who would buy the group sodas. And even though I would have refused because I didn't know more than half of them, I thought, because I felt so good that day, that I would do something different. Besides, I thought it would be pretty unlikely for me to lose, because the group was pretty big. But I lost in the first round. And what's more, I lost because I played scissors when everyone else played rock. So I had to go to get everyone sodas. But when I was walking out of the convenience store with the sodas, both of the plastic bags I had them in ripped open and the soda cans spilled everywhere. And after I picked everything up, I noticed that it felt like I had less than I started with. So I looked around and saw an old man sitting on a bench, who bent down to pick up a can of coffee that had rolled to a stop at his feet. And then he just picked it up and drank it!"

"That's...pretty unlucky." I conceded.

"But that's not all that happened— There's more. The man told me, when I confronted him about it, that it was natural to drink it because it ended up right in front of him! I told him that I was having an unlucky day, and then he told me he didn't believe in karma at all, saying he'd seen plenty of evil people be blessed with fortune, and kind people suffer misfortune, and said that since luck is something that can't be controlled, he told me to just accept things the way they were!"

"Wow, that's so rude! Honestly, what a jerk!" I blurted. He sighed.

"But there's still even _more_ to this ridiculous story. After the conversation, he just...Handed me the half-empty can of coffee and left. But I noticed that he left his phone on the bench. I called out to him, but he didn't seem to hear me, so I decided to try to return the phone to the man before getting the snacks to my friends. I ran after him, and then a bus came and he took off towards it. I ran after him and hopped onto the bus, and in the back, I saw him. But right when I was going to go and give him his phone, I tripped and fell down, but I was able to soften my landing by grabbing onto someone's bag. But I didn't have time to appreciate that because then, the bag I grabbed onto tore open and spilled precious jewelry. The bag's owner, who looked like just your average guy, then took out a knife and demanded that everyone freeze. It turned out he was a jewel thief who had just robbed a small jewelry shop!" He took a deep breath.

"And to think this all happened, just because you took the long way home..." I muttered.

"Honestly. And then the guy decided to get the driver out of his seat using me as a hostage, and ordered everyone on the bus to gather the scattered jewelry in exchange for their safety. But just as all the pieces had been gathered, the old man, who had been pretending to be asleep until then, jumped up and tackled the thief, and it turned out he was a kendo master! And at that moment, the only thought I had was that I had to save the old man. But when I tried to get up, the bus suddenly lurched forwards, because I'd accidentally switched gears and stepped on the gas, throwing both me and the old man off-balance. So he told me to hit the breaks, which I did, which just knocked me off balance again. But when I was regaining my balance, I accidentally hit the button to open the bus door. The robber immediately ran out of the bus, and the old man, writhing on the ground in pain, told me to chase after him. I couldn't believe that he'd ask someone like me to chase someone like that guy, and to actually catch him, but it seemed like the entire bus agreed with him. I looked to the bus driver, to see if he'd help everyone see how ridiculous that is, but he was passed out. So I had to jump out of the bus to go after him, and crashed into a postman who was just there to see what was going on. The robber then hopped onto the postman's motorcycle and started speeding off, and threatened me by saying he'd hate me for the rest of his life if he ended up getting arrested. The postman shouted at me to do something, but I just didn't want to move, I was tired of the misfortune and just wanted to be normal." _That's understandable._ I didn't say anything in response, my mouth opening and closing like a fish in shock. _That's so unlucky, this whole thing sounds so ridiculous...But somehow, coming from Makoto, it feels like something that could happen._

"And at that moment, the motorcycle tipped over and threw the robber across the street, and spun wildly before hitting a streetlamp and exploding in a shower of sparks and smoke, burning up the bag of letters that the postman had on it. Wanting to see what happened, I approached the accident site. And lo and behold, there was a bent and broken juice can, one of the ones that I'd dropped just a little bit ago."

"After being questioned by the police for several hours, I was dead tired, and wary of something else happening, but the taxi ride home went smoothly. And when I got home, my little sister greeted me and told me I'd been accepted into Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Lucky Student. I thought that was a good thing at the time, to make up for the horrible day, but...Well, you know how that turned out." he chuckled, finishing his story. "And to add insult to injury, I missed the music program featuring Sayaka Maizono that I was looking forward to." He finished, shaking his head. "But that's just my whole life. A series of impossible coincidences caused by bad luck, that renders any and all talent and careful plans completely useless."

"Jeez...And then this happened..." I muttered. "Seems like you just can't catch a break. Guess that's why they wanted you, though, huh? II mean, I don't know much about Hope's Peak Academy, but apparently they're dedicated to the study of talent, and having such bizarre luck would definitely make you worthy of study, like **that guy who was held hostage on a plane that got hijacked, but then the hijacker was killed by a meteor that hit the plane, which also killed both his parents**."

"Yeah...But speaking of **Sayaka Maizono** , it's strange. I did some research of this year's incoming class, and she was supposed to be here. Actually, she's the only known incoming student who I researched who's not here, besides **Junko Enoshima**."

"That is really weird..." I replied. "Could she be the sixteenth student?"

"Possibly...I wonder what happened to her." We both stood there in silence, thinking about what could have happened.

"Hey, it's pretty dark now. Dinner is probably ready." Makoto commented, scratching his head and gesturing at the stairs leading to the restaurant. And he was right; the sun was setting, bathing the area in orange twilight. I nodded and we both made our way up the stairs.

After a delicious dinner with an indeterminate chef, I walked back into my cabin and had just started organizing my things I'd received that day—specifically, placing the sheet music from Makoto in bookcase of music—when the room monitor clicked on.

> "Um...Hope's Peak Academy's School Trip Executive Committee has an announcement to make. Hello everyone! The fun time you have all been waiting for is about to begin! I wonder what festivities await you? Oops, don't wanna ruin the surprise! It was a little "meh" at first, but anyway, please gather at Jabberwock Park!"

The monitor clicked off, and immediately, my skin tingled with suspicion... _What is he planning?_ The suspicions and worries I'd been fighting to the back of my mind all day suddenly returned to the front of my mind, the possibilities of what could happen to us running through my head at full speed. _I...Don't want to know what will happen if we don't comply._ And so I took a deep breath, put on my backpack again, and stepped out of my cabin onto the dock, nearly bumping into Kirumi.

"Ah, I was just coming to collect you for the announcement."

"Yeah...I don't want to think about what could happen to us if we don't comply..." The night air was cool, and the stars above sparkled beautifully as the moonlight reflected off the water, but I could not enjoy it. "I'm coming, don't worry about me."

"Very well then." she replied curtly, and walked off with a curtsy. The smell of the ocean...It really was a nice island. I passed by Teruteru, who was mumbling something about how nothing was happening, and Chiaki, who kind of just...Stood there before walking off. It made sense; it was a stressful situation. The sand crunched beneath my feet as I made my way to the bridge. It really was a beautiful night, the sky clear as could be and with more glittering stars than I was accustomed to. I saw Kaito, standing next to the bridge and looking at the sky.

"It really is a beautiful night, isn't it? I can see the Milky Way, when there's no light pollution like this..." he commented, his voice more serious than usual. "Shame we can't enjoy it..." He turned and crossed the bridge. Even someone as carefree as him was feeling the situation. I fiddled with my backpack straps as I crossed the bridge, trying to focus on the crashing of the waves and the sound of my footsteps against the wooden bridge.

I stepped onto the sandy path of Central Island and strode to the park, only about a hundred meters away from the end of the bridge. I passed by Leon, who seemed uncharacteristically lost in thought. I decided not to bother him and walked into the park, where people were beginning to congregate. I was neither the first nor the last, but somewhere in the middle.

"..."

"..."

"..." We stood in silence as the last few people trickled in; Makoto was notably the last person, and had some sand in his hair.

"Hello, everybody! Now...Onto business—" Monokuma was interrupted by a flying, pink blur slamming into him.

"Whatever you're planning, I won't allow it!" Usami declared, jumping on him and hitting him with her stick. "No, no, no!" But she was flung away by Monokuma as though she were but a useless stuffed animal (ha—), who seemed to far overpower her. It didn't even feel weird anymore, to see something like this. _I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing, that I'm used to this already..._ "Kya!" She flew up into the sky, and disappeared into the night.

"Now that all nuisances have been taken care of—" Monokuma began, dusting off the front of his body.

"Hey!" Gonta interjected, shocked. "Monokuma shouldn't be so mean to Usami! Usami is very nice!"

"Who cares? She's just a pain-in-the-ass, anyway." Mondo scoffed. "Anyway, what the fuck do you want, you stupid teddy bear?" He cracked his knuckles loudly.

"Ha-wa-wa...You horrible bastards have no concern for anyone but yourselves, do you…? Not even poor, sweet Usami!"

"You were the one who flung her into orbit, just now," Celeste noted, fidgeting with her hair. "Were you not?"

"...That's beside the point." Monokuma replies. "Anyway, I am so disappointed in you all! Kids these days have no appreciation for how much work I put into hijacking this boring school trip and turning it into an exhilarating killing game! I mean, wow! They really upped the security this time around!"

"...Just get to the point already." Korekiyo groaned, pulling the bill of his hat down in front of his face. "Wha'da'ya want from us?"

"Not even any appreciation of what I put into this to make this fun for you cold-blooded killers, either! Hmmph!"

"Killers?! I-I'm sorry, b-but I don't remember k-killing anyone...D-did I do it by accident? I'm sorry!" Mikan panicked, crossing her arms over her head.

"There is no need to worry; he is simply attempting to rile us up. So, what is the purpose of our meeting here?" Kirumi pressed, gesturing at the group. "Surely you did not summon us all here to watch you kick Usami into orbit?"

"So utilitarian...Anyway. I've been thinking, and wondering why none of you wackos have gone and killed anyone yet. Then I realized: none of you actually have a reason to try to leave the island! And while I was thinking about that, I also thought about how none of you brats were respecting my authority...So, I decided to prepare a little something for you all, just to get this heart-pounding killing game off the ground, and show you bastards _exactly_ how hopeless your situation is! And so...The Motive! An all-new, never-before-seen motive that's certain to leave you on the edge of your seats!"

"...And that is…?" Chiaki asked, tilting her head to one side.

"And now, Hope's Peak Academy's School Trip Executive Committee would like to present, our motive! Drumroll please…!" Monokuma gestured to a tree, clearly expecting a drumroll, but the only sound was the chirping of crickets. It'd have been comical if the situation had not been so serious. He did a backflip onto the stage behind him and had suddenly donned a suit.

"Our Motive is...Global Warming!" the bear announced dramatically, the curtain behind him rising to show an alarming-looking graph that trended upwards.

"Global warming…? You're gonna try to get us to kill each other...With _climate change_?!" Kaito asked, incredulously. "Don't taint the Keeling Curve like this!"

"Hey, I wasn't done talking yet! So rude!" Monokuma scolded, throwing a microphone at us. It missed Kaito and hit Makoto in the head.

"Ow!"

"How selfish, dodging it! Anyway, the motive is...See that beautiful ocean there? Upupu...For every hour without a murder, the **entire world** 's sea level will rise by 5 centimeters! That may not sound like a lot, but it really adds up! In addition...You all know the **magic number** of global warming, right?"

"...1.8ºC?" Kaito replied, immediately. _I didn't know astronauts needed to know that stuff…_

"Well, yes, but 1.8 is a bit of an ugly number, don'cha think? So I'm rounding it up to 2ºC! Yes, that's right, for every day that passes without a murder, the temperature of the **entire world** will also rise by 2ºC! Upupu...A fitting 'rising action' for this killing game, don't you think?"

"Th-The **_entire world_**?!" Sakura exclaimed. "There's no way you have that ability! That's impossible!"

"What...Do you have any idea what that would take?! That's impossible!" Kaito sputtered.

"If you do that, then billions of people around the world will die!" Kirumi protested.

"Do you honestly think that he—no, whoever's doing this—gives a shit about that?!" Mondo yelled.

"Upupu...Hahahahaha!" Monokuma began cackling, a horrible, grating sound that boomed throughout the park. "Soon, you bastards will be forced to accept that so long as you are in **this world** , I am your God! There is nowhere in the entire world you can escape! I can do anything I want in this world! And you are all **completely powerless** to defy me!"

"This—This isn't happening...This is all just a bad dream! Yeah...N-none of this is real, and t-tomorrow morning I will wake up in my own bed, in my own home...Yeah..." Teruteru muttered, looking side to side in fear.

"That's impossible!" I blurted, lunging at Monokuma. But someone grabbed my arm and held me back.

"Stop it. You can't. Don't try to fight him, you'll only get yourself killed for no reason." Chiaki stated. Her grip on my wrist was surprisingly strong. I took a deep breath.

"Upupu...Bye!" And just as suddenly as he had appeared...He disappeared, leaving everyone in a shocked chaos, unwilling to believe what they'd just heard. _There's no way that's possible! There's no way! He can't...He can't do that, it's impossible!_ Even as we dispersed, every single person seemed to be muttering or thinking something along those lines, eyes wide with disbelief. Teruteru dashed to the supermarket, muttering those things, even as he emerged carrying sealant and large amounts of food.

I approached Makoto, who stood at the entrance of his cabin in a stupor. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm just...It's impossible." He stated, shaking his head...Almost as though he were reassuring himself. He stepped forward and opened his cabin door, before turning to me. "Night, Kaede."

"Night, Makoto." I replied, turning to enter my own cabin. When I entered, I did my normal preparations in a sort of trance before flopping onto the four-poster and forcing my eyes shut, clutching the pillow in an attempt to force my mind to shut down and sleep.

_It's impossible...Right?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so my sister is stinky and hasn't updated the companion so yeah here u go 😤


	13. Chapter I | Rising Action | Daily Life VI

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaede wakes up to something completely impossible has happened. Monokuma's nonsense exacerbates everyone's panic, and in the turmoil, nobody notices that someone is missing...

> **4̵͎̱͇̭͎͍̜̰̟̤̥̖̭̖͍̬ͮ̋̈́̑̿̑̈́́͌͘D̟͎̲́̃̂̓̉͞ ̡̦̗͓̫̱̼͕͎̺͔̰̤̤ͦ̄̎̃́ͨͭͩ͛̍ͧ̃̆ͬͭ̚͝7̵̸̤̯̙̝̟̺͕̯̱̹̜̳̂͐̋̂̈ͥ̒A̩̩̰̗͓ͦ̒͐ͣͭ̈̿͛ͫ̆͒ͦ̋̾̽̕ ̴̛̺̫̰͖͉̭̼̩̫̳̣͇̤̤̪̳̖̮͗̍͂ͣ̚͡4ͤ̊̓͐͌͜͏̫̠̻̣̯̯̣̲͚5̴̨̖̮̪̪̺̳͖̫̠̹͉̣̭̻̬͇̥̑̂ͤ̍͑ͬ̑ͦ̃̂̔͋͟ͅ ̷̟̙͍̝͍̥̼̰̖͓͓͉͉̤̯̺̲̈̀̆̄͜͝ͅ7̬͓͉̥̻̣̩̝͉̎ͧ̍̃̋̂͘͜9̢̗̙͎̻͒̿̌̅̋̈͂̇͆ͬ̚͟͜ ̷͔̹̥̭̩͛̄̓̋̎̉̈4̡̒̽̎ͧ͆͟҉̜̠͎̠͚͎͈̮̭͕̱̺͙̟̜̬ͅÈ̖̟̺͉̻ͣ̓͌͗̆̎ͦ͢͝͡ ̧͂͋ͨͦ̔͛̉̉̒ͯ͆͐҉̸̤̞̣5͔̺͓͇̲̮͔̟̰͉̓̈́́̓̈̃̅̍ͭͥ͠3̸ͥͩͧ̿͆̔̓͘͏̭̦͉̰̲̤̳͈̞̮͚͈̻̝̘̪ͅ ͫ̂̈̈͊́̽̈̅͡҉͎̣͙̝̹̣͖̣̜͙4̶̱̭̠͚̯̝̙̩͖̮͙͖̹̹̑̏̎͊͐̌̋ͣͣͦ͒̿ͩ͌ͭ͜1̍̑̌̽̾̃̑͌ͫ̂̋͑̇ͭ̇͏̘̮̜͍̖̺͈̱̰̜͔̥ ̷̼̲̤͇̰̱̾͑̇̾̀̓̔̉̈̅̌̍͑͝7̛̯̖̲͇͖̺͍͖̼͍̹̰̃ͯͧ̈́͋̄͑̇ͯ̚͘͡͡ͅͅ8̷̨̘̖͕͈̻̫̀ͬ͐̃̀ͪ̏ ̵̸̗̖͎̝̗͖̤̄ͨ͆̂ͦͤͯ̾ͨ͋͐ͥ̍̍̍̃͑̚͝ͅͅ4ͦͣͭ̔́̋̆̇̐ͮ̔̿ͬͭ͘͢͏̣͖̦̗̦̣̺̦̳̼͎̩͚̱̗̳F̴̝̩̜̮̟̬͎̜̣̤͕ͯ̃ͪ̊ ̸̴͇̦͚͈͓͍̬̩̼̻̹͖͙̘̂ͣ̈̌̅͊̂͑̑̋ͮͥ̂ͬ̌̽̚5́́̋ͤ̿͊̌͒ͪͣͩ̾̊҉̝̰̰͔͇̮4̜̻͕̘̝̮͇͇͔̼̪̫̲̮̟̫̳ͤ̈̑ͩ͐͒͟ ̵̼̖̳͙̝͆͊͐̓̀́̔̚4̛̱̼͔͈͖͔̜̙͕̤̫̃͒̉̾̈́ͧ̋ͬ͂̾ͩ̽͌̓̃̚͝1̡͎̲̗̰̞̽̐ͥ́͊̂͆ͧ̌̃̉ͩ̈̍̏͡ ̉̔͛͆̂ͣͨ͒͋ͤ̾͛ͧ̇҉̬̰͕̬̩͕̘̭͉̘͖͍͕̤̳̺͔̫͠͠6̡̖̮̬̥̜̖͇̝̲͕͇̼͍̇ͯͣ̎̂̃͌̆̌̽ͬ̆̂̂̉̕̕ͅ7̢͎̦̪̒ͩ̾̿̿͒ ̶̷̨̻͔̭̣̺̓ͯ͗ͬͤ͂̐ͥ͐͐ͦ͌ͅ4̯̘̦͓͙͙̬̱̗͙̦̥̖͓̯̯̲̓ͫ̾͒ͬ͟ͅD͗͛̉͞͡͏̼͍͚̪̣͇͎͉̲̪̮͎͕̣̩̻̫ͅ ̷̨̢̩̳̱͙͎̻͙͇͎̦̲̱̬̠͎̤̟̔͂̈̆̓͜6̧̠̯͙̥̝̣̖̬̞̅̔̈́͋̿͊̏̋̑͒͆͊̎̊́̃̎ͬ͘A̡̲͎̼̰̩̠̙͉̜̗͎̬͇͉̲̩ͩ̓̌̉ͯ͒̊̒ͣ̓ͬ̆̈́̉͢͢͝ ̶̤̝̮̪̥̦̦͇̭̘͓̫̖̫͙͚̀͛̆̌̃6̲̲̺̘̳̠͖̗̳͉̫̺͌͒ͫ̓ͣ̽̐̔ͤͥ̏̈́̅̈́͆̌͝3̸̸̮̘̹̤̮̠̥̩̻͉̠͍̞̘̊͗͒͊̅̂̓ͥ͂̾ ̧̢̳̥̮͚̝͇̓̔̌͛ͩͪ͂̽̃͑3̵̛͎͙̬̞̭̣̫̊̊͛̓͐ͥ̎5̢̲͚̥͍͇̖̬̩̠͖̦̳͓̠̝͈̥̦ͬ̇ͧ̈̓ͭ̾̃ ̵̥͇̫̮̜̪̩͔͓̤̘̺͕̏ͮ́͗̋̐̏̆̒̕͟4̂̈́ͬͮ̔ͣ̐ͩ͗̑ͥ͊̿ͣ̋̊̚҉͎͔̹̺͙̫̦̜̼̜̺̱͙͍̲̜ͅ9̸͔̠̝̭̞͙̪͖̤̗̯̭͓͈̳͍̲̻̾ͫͭ͌̑ ̛̪͎̳̗̗̜̰͚̠̟̣̠͖͔͗̎́̏ͮͦ́ͯͨ̑͘4̴͎̙̺̙̟͔̬͍̝̓̏͐̊ͬ̆͐͂̿̂ͫͫ̉̌̎̒͜4̛̯͓̲̞̮̫̜̳̪͓̜͕̣̪͕͈̈͗̌͊ͥ͂ͬ̃ͧͥ̑̀̈́ͨ͛̆ͪ̏͝ ̺̣̞͎̠̃̎̑͗̊͐̆̄ͬ͑͂̑͞5̧̦͇̖̘̹̜ͪ͑̓̇̎̄̏ͦ̌̅̒̚̕A̷̠̞̺͔̓̏̋ͨ̿̄̉̋̃̿̒ͩ̊̒̉̎ ̒̍̍͛́ͤ̍ͧ̇́ͥ͛ͥ̌̿͘͏̨̘̠̮̟͈̰͙̹4̵̛͙̙͎͍͓̳̄̊̍̎͐̈́͌ͥͯ́͌ͥ͌͛ͬ͆̎ͪͅ6̛̛̦̱̪̮̝̯̲͇͉̫̹̗̻ͯ̑ͭ̃̃̐͐͘͠ͅ ̶̢̱̮̱̜̳̘̱͈̥̤̲̭͉̞̜̗̫̍̎̽̑ͣ͐̌̎̑̔̀͂4͍͇̳̦̦̣̗̝̣͔̟̥̻̙͔͖̉̈̀̈̓͆̓ͥͭ͌ͤ͠͝9̴͇͔̹̼̟̖̖͎͚͍̯̜͍̟̬̺̻̔̏̅ͤ͡͝ͅ ͈̲͓͓̟̲̲͈̣̻͖̘̥̦̓̂̽̒ͮ͘͝4̝͎̹̝̘͍̺̭͇͕͎͎̠̅͛ͣ͐͘͞4̨̓̅ͣ͟͝҉̟͇̹̬͙͎͉̬͎͙͈͕̦̞͚ͅ ͇̗͕̲̜̺̺̘̓͗̈́ͨ͆͌̚͢͠͞4̵̨̙̮̼͉̟͚͚̬ͫͬ̇ͬ̐ͅͅD̡͚̰̮̻͉̠͚͎̘͈̅̎͗̅͛ͮ̒͆̽̋ͅ ̶̛̥͎̘͎̇͐̓ͦͮ̏ͮ̂͝7̵̸̢̳̳̹̩̼̺̙̘̣̩̜̭̙̠̻̜̈͛̊̾ͥ͊̚8̡̻̺̺̩̰̝͛ͪ̓̓̎ ̡͇͙̜̙̥̦̗̝̪ͫͮ̎̀͑ͭ̃̅̉̉ͪ͝ͅ4͊̊̋͊ͪ̽ͯ̅̍ͫ͢͞҉͚̳̭̼̟̟͉̖̤̤̦̹̦̞͓D̢̓ͣ̑̃͛̕҉̤̰͎͔̬̣ ͭ̒̊̇̈́ͦ͏̷̹̻͇̝̹̖͘͞ͅ6̷̛̤̘̤̠̼̬͍͔̖̺̝͍͓̤̰͙͎̅͊ͨͥͪ̊́͡A̛ͬ͆̐ͬͤ̈́͒͏̩͍̞ ͩ̒̄҉̵͎̹̼̙̣͕̤͞5̵̢̟͔͇̔̓ͦ̒5̰̺̱̮͈̲͚͉͓͙͇͓̱̣̘̉̉͆͊̆̓̓̈͊͌́́͐̎̆͟ͅͅ ̨͗ͯ̀͡҉̤͍̠̤̪̮͈6̸̢͇̱͕̖̹̮̳̱̤̜̮̣̥̙͖̮ͤ̊̅̂̿̌ͦͥ̊ͣͤ͊́͋̽̂͢7̺̩̯͖̯̝̣͕ͥ̋ͯ̾̍͂ͩ͗͢͟ ̩͕̝͎͖̮̮̝͓̲̤̝̤̻̺̦͉̄̐͂̾̃͛̅̕4̩͇̣̠̳̺̠̞̠̻̜̱̗̘̥͚ͣ͐̈̓̈́ͬ̈͛̎̏̀͋̿̊̏̚͘D̜͚̞͚̭̰̪̣ͥ̔͌͗ͮ͐̒͐̋͗̈́͢͡͠ ͚͔̪̘̯͎̝̭̯̲̦̝͔̠̳͆͌̀̔ͩ̒̎̆ͬ͗ͨ5̼̮͖̤̩̗̹ͪ̈̈́̈́͂́̒̒̚͜4̡̼̳̯͇̞̞͙̜̟͎̲̞̝͈̬̙̄͌̉́̂ͅ ̷̪͓̞̜͇͈̳͙͖ͯ̋̈́ͤ̆ͤ̌͆̓̋̐ͣ̒͊̚ͅ6̴̢̡̡̮̱̱̰͉͕̦̭̗͉̩͚̜̀͑͛͊̎͋͌̑̑̿̚Ḃ̵̮͔̥͉͇̗̳͍ͤ͆̎̀̒̃ͨͦͮͮ͜ ̛̰̰͍̤͚̘͌̐ͮ́̋ͣ̍̅̆͑̋̐ͧ̇7͕̠̳̠̥͍̝̝̰̩̟̠̱ͤ͒͑̋ͮͪͦ̂̓ͣ̀͞7̸̘̹̩̠̣͎̹̹̼̠̭͚͍̞̺̯̹̗̈́̉̽͋̒̾͜͞ ͗ͣ̌̏̔̇ͨ̃͜҉̥̜̯͝͞4̵ͣ̋́͌͗ͤ͏̥͈̳͓̦9̨̒͋̔ͤ̿͂͒̐̇̂͠͏̞̺̭ ̷̑̅̾ͧ̓͊̋̇́ͯͩͦ҉͖̲̻̮̯̬̭͕̕4̧̨̪̘̩̘̘̙̞̹̆̓̾̔̓̀̆̀̅̐ͧ̈́̒͌͝ͅ4̴͆̍͒ͦ͒̽̈́͂ͭ̍̂̽̃̐̆̚͏͚̘̯̙̣͜ ̷̎͆̓ͯͤ̀ͬͯ͌ͯ̄͌̊́̚͡҉͏̼̺̯̜̠̣̬̟͍̹̣͍̙̦̘̯̺4̵̯̥̺̻͓͎͍͕͉̜̺͗͋̒̐͊ͤ́̎ͬͮ̓͊͜ͅ9̵̡̻̫̟͙̯̠̣ͯͯ̉̅͛̚͘͡ ̢̆ͮ͛ͤ҉҉̢̤̮̼̲̲̮̤̬͓̩3̷͉̳̫̞̩̦͌͛ͪ̊́͂̆ͩ̉̌͐̌͒̎̕͞͡ͅ3͓̲̼̳͙̖͓̼̠̲͍͈̮͕͈̓̌͒̎ͨͦ̇̽ͪͬ́͛͡ͅ ͌͂̏ͮͮ̒̇̆ͨ̎͏͖̭̲͈̗̗̫̪͓̥͍̲̠̣̩̼̺ͅ4̑̿͛̔͟͏̹͈̱̬̳̘̼ͅF̷̧̘̞̼͖͎̥͓̬͚̣͕̯̞̙̫̦͆ͯ͑͗ͯ̒ͨ͢͠ͅ ̧̗̭̖͙̣͚͎̦͎̭̣̊ͬ̃ͮͮ̐͒̿̒̅̃̍͑͑̾̑͢5̖͖̼̝̥͎̺̥̮͈̩̟̫̻̼̰ͮ̔ͧ͘ͅͅ3̷̩̣̗̹̰͚ͪ̅̌̾͛ ̷̶̶̹̱̟͈̱͓̳͈̲̯̙̤̰̯̱͎̪̊̇̊͌ͨ͝ͅ4̵̧̥̣͕͈͍͌̽̓ͧ͗ͮͬ̌̃̍̆̌ͬ̓͟1̵̨̥͙̩̤ͧ͋̇͘ ̐͒̋̿ͯ̄̊ͦ͒ͦͮ͒͏̛͖͖̠̪̤̺3͔̟̥̗̙̹͇̰͑̉̓͆̊̆̀̂̋̏̆͢2̵ͥ͛͒̄̎ͧ̔̑̇̅̐̈̽͏̥̭͔̙̳̤̰̩̭̕͠ ̵̛̛͔̮͈̥̝͙̦͉͈̺̫̙̓ͣ͛̆͆̅̍ͪ̋ͮͨ̂͊̏̚͟5̥͉̜̲̟̘̟͙̙̝̝̳̘̤͕͐̃̊ͬ̑͑̌ͮ͠ͅ2̶̨̢͉͔̦̞̜͙͍̬̬̣̼̈̂̀̑̕ͅ ̸̞̠͚̟̖̯̥̻̯ͥ̉ͦ5̥͍̬̠̘͎̖̯̫̎ͮ̐ͩ̍͑̐̂͘͝1̪̦̖̯̙̥̤̻̗̱͎̤̤̥̹́̈́ͮ̎͒̃͒̾̀̈́̅ͫ̓̓͑̔̈͝͝ ̨͇͕̩̫̝̜̜̼̞̭̥̲͇̟̗̥̰̑ͥ̈͞3̢̛͉̰̪̙̰͉̠̭̩ͤ̽ͬ̎̎̋ͤ́Ď̸̤͎̹̲̰̣̫͕̣ͯͥ̈͂̾̎ͥ̾̈̔ͯ̏ͪͮ̋̉̊͜͝ ̨ͬ̓̔̅̃̐̎͛͆͒̓ͮ̚͏̜͚̞̪̱̪͎̥̫̳̫͉̣͓̦͓̭̟͞3̻̥̩̯̗̳̅ͭ̐͌ͦͩ̋͗̄̃̉͡Ď̵̤͚̬͖̖̟͔͚̼̬̩̫̥̓̐ͧ͟** **Theater**
> 
> _Things are so omplicated these days._
> 
> _It wasn't like this when I was younger!_
> 
> _There was never anyone who was 143 162 141 172 171...Or anyone who was makin' 01101101 01110101 01110010 01100100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01110000 01101100 01101111 01110100 01110011...Or anyone d2hvIHRocmV3IGZsb3VyIGF0IHBlb3BsZSBhbmQgdGhyZXcgJ2VtIGludG8gYSB2b2xjYW5vIQ==_
> 
> _I feel bad about what ended up happening...I mean, for crying out loud_
> 
> _That guy was just 67 69 62 72 6D 27 20 67 6C 20 68 67 6C 6B 20 7A 20 6E 66 69 77 76 69 20 75 69 6C 6E 20 73 7A 6B 6B 76 6D 72 6D'..._
> 
> _And that d2Fja2pvYg== just had to go and ruin it, with aGlzIGluc2FuZSBob3BlIHBsYW4=..._
> 
> _I just...Wanna dGZmIG56IG5ibmIgYmhiam8=...I just need t' know 01110111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01100101 01101110 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101000 01100101 01110010..._
> 
> _I 100 111 110 39 116 32 119 97 110 116 YW55IG9m this 164 157 be real..._

I snapped awake at the sound of someone screaming and shot up, having slept in my clothes, and snatched my backpack before dashing out of the cabin, out of the hotel in the direction of the scream. And what I saw, I could not believe.

"Guys, what's— Kya!" I shrieked. In my rush, I didn't see it right away, but stepped in it first, gasping at the sensation of cold, salty water flowing into my loafers and soaking into my socks, squishing between my toes as I stepped back onto what little of the ground had not besn submerged by the sea.

"Th-This isn't happening!" Mikan cried, staring at the water in horror. It was literally impossible, something that defied all logic, probably defied every scientific law out there, and yet...It felt like a video game, but this wasn't a video game. This was our reality. Our completely impossible, entirely improbable reality.

"...Uwaaaaaaagh!"

"H-huh?!"

"Gyaaaaaaah!"

"No way..." The others arrived, probably summoned by the scream, screaming and gasping in their own horrified confusion. It was impossible. There is no way to express how impossible this situation was. This much sea level rise overnight? It was simply impossible. And yet...

"Please, somebody pinch me..." Leon mumbled, his eyes wide as platters as he stared into the water with a blank expression of confusion.

"How is this possible?!" Sakura exclaimed, staring at the water with a similar look of bewilderment. Like the confused sound of a cat crossing a keyboard. The group fell into disarray once again, deaf to Kirumi's attempts to return to order.

"Ouch!" Leon yelped, rubbing his arm. "I didn't actually want anyone to pinch me!"

"Gonta's sorry!" the muscular boy cried, holding his hands out defensively.

"Hey!" Mondo barked. "Don't get pissy with someone for doing what you asked 'cuz you're too wimpy t' take it!"

"How did this happen?" Makoto asked incredulously. "Th-This— This is—"

"We get it! It's impossible! Can we simply move on already?!" Korekiyo snapped.

"Upupu...Still in denial, I see?"

"Hey! What do you want?!" Makoto demanded, pointing at the bear. "How did this happen?!"

"Upupu...You can't just ask a bear to reveal his secrets, it ruins the charm!" he giggled, smiling at us. Well, he was always smiling, but—He had a smug aura this time.

"This...This could kill billions! All over a killing game?!" Kirumi scowled, glaring harshly at the bear.

"Upupu...You misunderstand. All I said was I'd raise the **entire world's** sea level, not that it'd affect other countries."

"But..." Korekiyo countered. "There's other countries in the world. That doesn't make any sense."

"Well, yes and also no. See...When I said " **the world** ," what I really meant was... **Your world**! You see, the Hope's Peak Academy School Trip Ethics Committee wouldn't allow this killing game if it affected other countries, so...Let's just say that **your world** begins and ends with Jabberwock Island!"

"But **the world** , ' **our world** ' has more countries than Jabberwock Island...They would be affected if the **entire** **world** is affected by this." Peko stated.

"I told you! This only affects **your world** , which begins and ends with Jabberwock Island! We only do ethical killing games here!"

"Ethical...Killing game...? But how? That's not...That's not how that works. That's not how any of this works." I said.

"It is here!"

"This is...Impossible...Unless...Are we responsible for some grievance upon the Demon Emperor of Water and Sky?"

"No, it's not impossible, I know how he did it!" Kaito declared, suddenly.

"Huh? You do?" I gasped. Everyone turned to him.

"How do you think he did it?" Celeste asked. "I am beginning to think that he truly is some godlike-being..."

"Upupu...I may not be **a god** , but I am **your god**!"

"Well, maybe he destablized the moon's orbit so it moves closer to Earth, making the tides more extreme. Silence. Then, a loud slap resounded through the group.

"Ow!"

"That," Celeste snarled, "Must be the most _idiotic_ thing the world has ever heard!" Her face twisted into an ugly snarl; even black twin drills seemed to share her rage. It was as though she had become a different person, from the calm and mysterious gothic lolita to the enraged woman who stood before us. The duality...

"No it's not, now listen—"

"So...Does that mean he stopped the moon from going around the Earth?" Leon questioned. Another slap.

"Ow!"

"Congratulations, you have now managed to _exceed_ the stupidity of Kaito's original statement!"

"No, not that. If the moon's orbit stopped, it would fall to Earth and we'd have bigger problems on our hands." Kaito replied.

"Hmm...Gonta doesn't understand...How would the moon move closer?" Gonta asked, looking at Kaito inquisitively.

"Well, if he attached a giant rocket to the moon—" Celeste lunged at him, intending to slap him a second time, but she was held back by Sakura.

"Please, calm yourself..."

"But that does not explain the temperature increase..." Peko rebutted.

"Hmm. Let's see." Chiaki spoke, bending down and cupping some of the water into her hand before drinking it and promptly spitting it out.

"Yep, just as salty as before...I think."

"Weird...Gonta thought he maybe burned a lot of things and made it hotter to melt all the ice, but then the water would be less salty." Gonta murmured, crossing his arms. "Gonta...Is so confused..."

"Hmm. Maybe we're trying to use logic in a situation where it doesn't apply...I think." Chiaki suggested.

"I do happen to agree; nothing about our situation since we awakened two days prior to this has followed the rules of logic." Kirumi concurred. "Perhaps it would serve us better to instead find a solution to this, or work on finding an escape, instead of worrying about the causes."

"Yeah...That sounds good...I think."

"You should be more confident in yourself."

"But if this truly affects the **entire world** , then it's possible that there may be no place to escape to..." Sakura uttered.

"Geez, you guys don't listen! There's no escaping, because **your world** , which begins and ends with Jabberwock Island, is completely separate from the **outside world**!" the bear exclaimed.

"Ah...That's like a video game...I think." Chiaki noted.

"Upupu..." Monokuma giggled and disappeared.

"Don't listen to his nonsense! Even the best virtual reality developed by NASA can't imitate tactile sensation like this, and there's a lot of things like body positioning, that they can't do either. So this has to be real!" Kaito rebukes, holding out a fist. "That's why I think he's done something to the moon's orbit!"

"Well, regardless of the cause, I don't think we need to worry too much. After all, he—well, whoever's running him—seems to be the kind of person to get bored pretty easily, so when he sees that this won't work, he'll stop." Makoto reasoned, shrugging his shoulders. "We should just try to survive until then. It's going to be okay."

"That's...Probably best..." I replied, my mind and heart racing with disconcertment. Some mumbled things along the same lines, but others mumbled their own theories on the goings on. And still, others mumbled their own concerns.

"Maybe he made the world's oceans smaller but kept the water in it the same?"

"But will the world be able to survive this for however long that takes...?"

"Maybe he's just a god." But just as people were beginning to disperse, a concern rose above the crowd, something no one had even thought of.

"Uh...G-Guys...?" Mikan squeaked. "I-I don't w-want to make people p-panic, but...Where's Teruteru...?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> owo i'm on a roll this week

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been thinking about this for a while now, and finally decided to write it! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!  
> Tags will be added as the story progresses.
> 
> Also, comments are what sustain me,,,


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